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Divis.en.  Ji^.fr  &  I  7 

Section  JL.L  .9   ( 

No. 


THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 


THE 


COVENANT  OF  SALT 


AS  BASED  ON  THE  SIGNIFICANCE  AND  SYMBOLISM 
OF  SALT  IN  PRIMITIVE  THOUGHT 


BY/ 

H.  CLAY  TRUMBULL 

Author  of  "The  Blood  Covenant,"  "The  Threshold  Covenant,"  "Kadesh- 
barnea,"  "Studies  in  Oriental  Social  Life,"  etc. 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS 

1899 


Copyright,  1899 
By  H.  CLAY  TRUMBULL 


PREFACE 

In  1884  I  issued  a  volume  on  "The  Blood  Cove- 
nant :  A  Primitive  Rite  and  its  Bearings  on  Scripture." 
Later  I  was  led  to  attempt,  and  to  announce  as  in 
preparation,  another  volume  in  the  field  of  primitive 
covenants,  including  a  treatment  of  "The  Name 
Covenant,"  "The  Covenant  of  Salt,"  and  "The 
Threshold  Covenant"  In  1896,  I  issued  a  separate 
volume  on  "  The  Threshold  Covenant,"  that  subject 
having  grown  into  such  prominence  in  my  studies  as 
to  justify  its  treatment  by  itself.  These  two  works, 
"The  Blood  Covenant"  and  "The  Threshold  Cove- 
nant," have  been  welcomed  by  scholars  on  both  sides 
of  the  ocean  to  an  extent  beyond  my  expectations, 
and  in  view  of  this  I  venture  to  submit  some  further 
researches  in  the  field  of  primitive  thought  and 
customs. 

Before  the  issuing  of  my  second  volume,  I  had  pre- 
pared the  main  portion  of  this  present  work  on  "  The 
Covenant  of  Salt,"  but  since  then  I  have  been  led  to 
revise  it,  and  to   conform   it  more  fully  to  my  latest 


vi  PREFA  CE 

conclusion  as  to  the  practical  identity  of  all  covenants. 
It  is  in  this  form  that  I  present  it,  as  a  fresh  contribu- 
tion to  the  study  of  archeology  and  of  anthropology. 

As  I  have  come  to  see  it,  as  a  result  of  my  re- 
searches, the  very  idea  of  a  "  covenant"  in  primitive 
thought  is  a  union  of  being,  or  of  persons,  in  a  com- 
mon life,  with  the  approval  of  God,  or  of  the  gods. 
This  was  primarily  a  sharing  of  blood,  which  is  life, 
between  two  persons,  through  a  rite  which  had  the 
sanction  of  him  who  is  the  source  of  all  life.  In 
this  sense  " blood  brotherhood"  and  the  "threshold 
covenant"  are  but  different  forms  of  one  and  the 
same  covenant.  The  blood  of  animals  shared  in  a 
common  sacrifice  is  counted  as  the  blood  which  makes 
two  one  in  a  sacred  covenant.  Wine  as  "  the  blood 
of  the  grape"  stands  for  the  blood  which  is  the  life 
of  all  flesh ;  hence  the  sharing  of  wine  stands  for  the 
sharing  of  blood  or  life.  So,  again,  salt  represents 
blood,  or  life,  and  the  covenant  of  salt  is  simply  another 
form  of  the  one  blood  covenant.  This  is  the  main 
point  of  this  new  monograph.  So  far  as  I  know,  this 
truth  has  not  before  been  recognized  or  formulated. 

Similarly  the  sharing  of  a  common  name,  especially 
of  the  name  of  God,  or  of  a  god,  is  the  claim  of  a 
divinely  sanctioned  covenant  between  those  who  bear 
it.      It  is  another  mode  of  claiming  to  be  in  the  one 


PREFACE  vll 

vital  covenant  A  temporary  agreement,  or  truce, 
between  two  who  share  a  drink  of  water  or  a  morsel 
of  bread,  is  a  lesser  and  very  different  thing  from 
entering  into  a  covenant,  which  by  its  very  nature  is 
permanent  and  unchangeable.  This  difference  is 
pointed  out  and  emphasized  in  the  following  pages. 

In  these  new  investigations,  as  in  my  former  ones, 
I  have  been  aided,  step  by  step,  by  specialists,  who 
have  kindly  given  me  suggestions  and  assistance  by 
every  means  in  their  power.  This  furnishes  a  fresh 
illustration  of  the  readiness  of  all  scholars  to  aid  any 
fresh  worker  in  any  line  where  their  own  labors  render 
them  an  authority  or  a  guide. 

Besides  my  special  acknowledgments  in  the  text 
and  footnotes  of  this  volume,  I  desire  to  express  my 
indebtedness  and  thanks  to  these  scholars  who  have 
freely  rendered  me  important  assistance  at  various 
points  in  my  studies  :  Professor  Dr.  Hermann  V.  Hil- 
precht,  the  Rev.  Drs.  Marcus  Jastrow,  K.  Kohler,  and 
Henry  C.  McCook,  Professor  Drs.  Hermann  Collitz, 
H.  Carrington  Bolton,  William  H.  Roberts,  Morris 
Jastrow,  Jr.,  F.  K.  Sanders,  William  A.  Lamberton, 
W.  W.  Keen,  William  Osier,  J.  W.  Warren,  and  D.  C. 
Munro,  Drs.  J.  Solis  Cohen,  Thomas  G.  Morton,  Charles 
W.  Dulles,  Henry  C.  Cattell,  and  Frederic  H.  Howard, 
Rev.  Dean  E.  T.  Bartlett,  President  Robert  E.  Thomp- 


vni  PREFACE 

son,  Drs.  Talcott  Williams,  Henry  C.  Lea,  and  T.  H. 
Powers  Sailer,  Messrs.  Clarence  H.  Clark  and  Patter- 
son DuBois. 

This  third  work  is  to  be  considered  in  connection 
with  the  two  which  have  preceded  it  in  the  same  field. 
It  is  hoped  that  it  will  be  recognized  as  adding  an 
important  thought  to  the  truths  brought  out  in  those 
works  severally. 

A  previously  published  monograph  on  "  The  Ten 
Commandments  as  a  Covenant  of  Love  "  is  added  to 
"The  Covenant  of  Salt"  as  a  Supplement,  in  order 
that  it  may  be  available  to  readers  of  this  series  of 
volumes  on  covenants,  as  a  historical  illustration  of 
the  subject  under  discussion. 

H.  C.  T. 

Philadelphia, 

October,  i8gg. 


CONTENTS 
I. 

Page 

Characteristics  of  a  Covenant     , i 

II. 
A  Covenant  of  Salt n 

III. 
Bible  References  to  the  Rite 15 

IV. 
Bread  and  Salt »     .     .     .     21 

V. 
Salt  Representing  Blood 35 

VI. 
Salt  Representing  Life 51 

VII. 
Salt  and  Sun,  Life  and  Light       .......     71 

VIII. 
Significance  of  Bread 77 

IX. 
Salt  in  Sacrifices 81 


X  CONTENTS 

X. 

Page 

Salt  in  Exorcism  and  Divination 97 

XI. 

Faithlessness  to  Salt 107 

XII. 
Substitute  together  with  Reality 115 

XIII. 
Added  Traces  of  the  Rite 121 

XIV. 
A  Savor  of  Life  or  of  Death 131 

XV 
Means  of  a  Merged  Life ,     .     .     .   139 

SUPPLEMENT 
The  Ten  Commandments  as  a  Covenant  of  Love    .    143 

INDEXES 
Topical  Index,  177.  Scriptural  Index,  183. 


I 

CHARACTERISTICS  OF  A  COVENANT 


CHARACTERISTICS  OF  A  COVENANT 

Our  English  word  "  covenant,"  like  many  another 
word  in  our  language  and  in  other  languages,  fails  to 
convey,  or  even  to  contain,  its  fullest  and  most  im- 
portant meaning  in  comparison  with  the  idea  back  of 
it.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  this  must  be  true  of  nearly  all 
words.  Ideas  precede  words.  Ideas  have  spirit  and 
life  before  they  are  shaped  or  clothed  in  words. 
Words  have  necessarily  human  limitations  and  im- 
perfectness,  because  of  their  purely  human  origin. 

When  an  idea  first  seeks  expression  in  words,  it  is 
inevitable  that  it  be  cramped  by  the  means  employed 
for  its  conveyance.  At  the  best  the  word  can  only 
suggest  the  idea  back  of  it,  rather  than  accurately 
define  and  explain  that  idea.  In  practice,  or  in  con- 
tinued and  varied  use,  in  the  development  of  thought 
and  of  language,  changes  necessarily  occur  in  the 
word  or  words  selected  to  convey  a  primal  idea,  in 
order  to  indicate  other  phases  of  the  idea  than  that 
brought  out  or  pointed  to  by  the  first  chosen  word. 

3 


4  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

While  these  changes  and  additions  aid  some  persons 
to  an  understanding  of  the  root  idea,  they  tend  to 
confuse  others,  especially  those  who  are  looking  for 
exactness  of  definition. 

As  a  rule,  the  earlier  words  chosen  for  the  expres- 
sion of  an  idea  are  more  likely  than  later  ones  to 
suggest  the  main  thought  seeking  expression.  Hence 
there  is  often  a  gain  in  looking  back  among  the  Greek 
and  Sanskrit  and  Hebrew  and  Assyrian  roots  carried 
forward  by  religion  or  commerce  into  our  English 
words  and  idioms,  when  we  are  searching  for  the  true 
meaning  of  an  important  custom  or  rite  or  thought. 
Yet  this  will  ordinarily  be  confusing  rather  than  clari- 
fying to  an  exact  scholar.  Only  as  a  person  is  intent 
on  the  primal  thought  back  of  the  chosen  word  is  he 
likely  to  perceive  the  true  meaning  and  value  of  the 
suggestions  of  the  earlier  word  or  words  found  in  his 
searching. 

Archeology  is  sometimes  more  valuable  than  phi- 
lology in  throwing  light  on  the  meaning  of  ancient 
words.  It  is  often  easier  to  explain  the  use  of  an 
archaic  word  by  a  disclosed  primitive  custom  or  rite, 
than  to  discern  a  hidden  primitive  rite  or  custom  by 
a  study  of  the  words  used  in  referring  to  it.  An 
archeologist  may  suggest  a  solution  of  a  problem 
which  hopelessly  puzzles  the  lexicographer  or  gram- 


ROOT  IDEA    OF  COVENANTING  5 

marian.  Sentiment  and  the  poetic  instinct  are  often 
more  helpful,  in  such  research,  than  prescribed  ety- 
mological methods.  He  who  looks  for  an  exact 
definition  can  never  reach  a  conclusion.  If  he  seeks 
a  suggestion,  he  may  find  one. 

"  Covenant,"  as  an  English  word,  simply  means, 
according  to  its  etymological  signification,  "  a  coming 
together."  At  times  the  word  is  used  interchangeably 
with  such  words  as  "an  agreement,"  " a  league,"  "a 
treaty,"  "  a  compact,"  "an  arrangement,"  "an  obliga- 
tion," or  "a  promise."  Only  by  its  context  and  con- 
nections are  we  shown  in  special  cases  that  a  covenant 
bond  has  peculiar  or  pre-eminent  sacredness  and 
perpetuity.  This  truth  is,  however,  shown  in  many 
an  instance,  especially  in  translations  from  earlier 
languages. 

Even  in  our  use  of  the  English  word  "  covenant  " 
we  have  to  recognize,  at  times,  its  meaning  as  a  sacred 
and  indissoluble  joining  together  of  the  two  parties 
covenanting,  as  distinct  from  any  ordinary  agreement 
or  compact.  And  when  we  go  back,  as  in  our  Eng- 
lish Bible,  to  the  Greek  and  Hebrew  words  rendered 
"covenant,"  or  "testament,"  or  "oath,"  in  a  sworn 
bond,  we  find  this  distinction  more  strongly  em- 
phasized. It  is  therefore  essential  to  a  correct  view 
of  any  form  of  primitive  covenanting  that  we  under- 


6  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

stand  the  root  idea  in  this  primal  sort  of  coming 
together. 

Primitive  covenanting  was  by  two  persons  cutting 
into  each  other's  flesh,  and  sharing  by  contact,  or  by 
drinking,  the  blood  thus  brought  out  Earliest  it  was 
the  personal  blood  of  the  two  parties  that  was  the 
nexus  of  their  covenant.  Later  it  was  the  blood  of  a 
shared  and  eaten  sacrifice  that  formed  the  covenant 
nexus.  In  such  a  case  the  food  of  the  feast  became 
a  part  of  the  life  of  each  and  both,  and  fixed  their 
union.  In  any  case  it  was  the  common  life  into 
which  each  party  was  brought  by  the  covenant  that 
bound  them  irrevocably.  This  fixed  the  binding  of 
the  two  as  permanent  and  established.1 

Lexicographers  and  critics  puzzle  over  the  sup- 
posed Hebrew  or  Assyrian  origin  of  the  words  trans- 
lated "covenant"  in  our  English  Bible,  and  they  fail 
to  agree  even  reasonably  well  on  the  root  or  roots  in- 
volved. Yet  all  the  various  words  or  roots  suggested 
by  them  have  obvious  reference  to  the  primal  idea  of 
covenanting  as  a  means  of  life-sharing  ;  therefore  their 
verbal  differences  are,  after  all,  of  minor  importance, 
and  may  simply  point  to  different  stages  in  the  pro- 
gressive development  of  the  languages. 

Whether,  therefore,  the  root  of  the  Hebrew  bereeth 

1  See  Blood  Covenant  and  Threshold  Covenant,  passim. 


MAKING    TWAIN  ONE  7 

means,  as  is  variously  claimed  "to  cut,"  "to  fetter," 
"to  bind  together,"  "to  fix,"  "to  establish,"  "to 
pour  out,"  or  "  to  eat,"  it  is  easy  to  see  how  these 
words  may  have  been  taken  as  referring  to  the  one 
primitive  idea  of  a  compassed  and  established  union.1 
So  in  the  Greek  words  diatJieke  and  horkion  it  can 
readily  be  seen  that  the  references  to  the  new  placing 
or  disposing  of  the  parties,  to  their  solemn  appeal  to 
God  or  the  gods  in  the  covenanting,  and  to  the  testa- 
ment to  take  effect  after  the  death  of  the  testator,  or 
to  the  means  employed  in  this  transaction,  are  alike 
consistent  with  the  primitive  idea  of  a  covenant  in 
God's  sight  by  which  one  gives  over  one's  very  self, 
or  one's  entire  possessions,  to  another.  The  pledged 
or  merged  personality  of  the  two  covenantors  fully 
accounts  for  the  different  suggested  references  of  the 
variously  employed  words. 

True  marriage  is  thus  a  covenant,  instead  of  an 
arrangement.  The  twain  become  no  longer  two,  but 
one  ;  each  is  given  to  the  other  ;  their  separate  iden- 
tity is  lost  in  their  common  life.  A  ring,  a  bracelet, 
a  band,  has  been  from  time  immemorial  the  symbol 
and  pledge  of  such  an  indissoluble  union.2 

1  See  Gesenius's  Hebraeisches  undAramaeisch.es    Worterbuch,   12th 
ed.,  p.  120;  Norwach's  Lehrbuch  der  Hebraeischen  Archaeologie,  I.,  p. 
358,  note  1  ;  Friedrich  Delitzsch's  The  Hebrew  Language  Viewed  in  the 
Light  of  Assyrian  Research,  p.  41  ;  Blood  Covenant,  2d  ed.,  p.  264. 
2 Blood  Covenant,  2d  ed.,  pp.  54,  75,  77. 


8  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

Men  have  thus,  many  times  and  in  many  ways, 
signified  their  covenanting,  and  their  consequent  inter- 
change of  personality  and  of  being,  by  the  exchange 
of  certain  various  tokens  and  symbols  ;  but  these  ex- 
changes have  not  in  any  sense  been  the  covenant 
itself,  they  have  simply  borne  witness  to  a  covenant. 
Thus  men  have  exchanged  pledges  of  their  covenant 
to  be  worn  as  phylacteries,  or  caskets,  or  amulets,  or 
belts,  on  neck,  or  forehead,  or  arm,  or  body  ; l  they 
have  exchanged  weapons  of  warfare  or  of  the  chase  ; 
they  have  exchanged  articles  of  ordinary  dress,  or  of 
ornament,  or  of  special  utility ; 2  they  have  exchanged 
with  each  other  their  personal  names.3  All  these 
have  been  in  token  of  an  accomplished  covenant,  but 
they  have  not  been  forms  or  rites  of  the  covenant 
itself. 

Circumcision  is  spoken  of  in  the  Old  Testament  as 
the  token  of  a  covenant  between  the  individual  and 
God.  It  is  so  counted  by  the  Jew  and  the  Muham- 
madan.  In  Madagascar,  as  illustrative  of  outside  na- 
tions, it  is  counted  as  the  token  of  a  covenant  between 
the  individual  and  his  earthly  sovereign.  The  ceremo- 
nies accompanying  it  all  go  to  prove  this.4     Again, 

1  Blood  Covenant,  2d  ed.,  pp.  232-238,  326-330. 
2  Ibid.,  pp.  14,  24,  28,  35  f,  62,  270  ;   1  Sam.  18  :  4  ;  20 :  1-13. 
3  Ibid.,  2d  ed.,  p.  334  f. 
4  Ibid.    pp.  215-233  ;  Gen.  17  :  1-14  ;  Ellis's  History  of  Madagascar,  pp. 
176-186. 


,       CUSTOMS  PRECEDE  WORDS  9 

men  have  covenanted  with  one  another  to  merge  their 
common  interests,  and  to  obliterate  or  ignore  their 
racial,  tribal,  or  social  distinctions,  as  no  mere  treaty 
or  league  could  do. 

In  tradition  and  in  history  men  have  covenanted 
with  God,  or  with  their  gods,  so  that  they  could  claim 
and  bear  the  divine  name  as  their  own,  thus  sharing 
and  representing  the  divine  personality  and  power.1 
Thus  also  in  tradition  different  gods  of  primitive  peo- 
ples and  times  have  covenanted  with  one  another,  so 
that  each  was  the  other,  and  the  two  were  the  same.2 

There  are  seeming  traces  of  this  root  idea  of  cove- 
nanting, through  making  two  one  by  merging  the  life 
of  each  in  a  common  life,  in  words  that  make  "union" 
out  of  "one."  In  the  Welsh  un  is  "one;"  uno  is 
"to  unite."  In  the  English,  from  the  Latin,  a  unit 
unites  with  another  unit,  and  the  two  are  unified  in 
the  union.  The  two  by  this  merging  become  not  a 
double,  but  a  larger  one.  Thus  it  is  always  in  a  true 
covenant. 

We  have  to  study  the  meaning  and  growth  of  words 
in  the  light  of  ascertained  primitive  customs  and  rites 
and  ideas,  instead  of  expecting  to  learn  from  ascer- 
tained  root-words  what  were    the    prevailing   primal 

1  Blood  Covenant,  2d  ed. ,  p.  335. 
*See  Trumbull's  Friendship  the  Master-Passion,  p.  73  f. 


TO  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

ideas  and  rites  and  customs  in  the  world.  In  the  line 
of  such  studying,  covenants  and  the  covenant  relation 
have  been  found  to  be  an  important  factor,  and  to 
have  had  a  unique  significance  in  the  development  of 
human  language  and  in  the  progress  of  the  human 
race  from  its  origin  and  earliest  history.  The  study 
and  disclosures  of  the  primitive  covenant  idea  in  its 
various  forms  and  aspects  have  already  brought  to 
light  important  truths  and  principles,  and  the  end  is 
not  yet. 


II 

A     COVENANT  OF  SALT 


II 

A  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

Among  the  varied  forms  of  primitive  covenanting, 
perhaps  none  is  more  widely  known  and  honored,  or 
less  understood,  the  world  over,  than  a  covenant  of  salt, 
or  a  salt  covenant.  Religion  and  superstition,  civiliza- 
tion and  barbarism,  alike  deal  with  it  as  a  bond  or 
rite,  yet  without  making  clear  the  reasons  for  its  use. 
The  precise  significance  and  symbolism  of  salt  as  the 
nexus  of  a  lasting  covenant  is  by  no  means  generally 
understood  or  clearly  defined  by  even  scholars  and 
scientists.  The  subject  is  certainly  one  worthy  of 
careful  consideration  and  study. 

A  covenant  of  salt  has  mention,  in  peculiar  rela- 
tions, in  the  Bible.  It  is  prominent  in  the  literature 
and  traditions  of  the  East.  Here  in  our  Western 
world  there  are  various  folk-lore  customs  and  sayings 
that  show  familiarity  with  it  as  a  vestige  of  primitive 
thought.  Among  the  islands  of  the  sea,  and  in  out- 
of-the-way  corners  of  the  earth,  it  shows  itself  as 
clearly  as  in  Europe,  Asia,  Africa,  and  America. 

13 


14  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

In  some  regions  salt  is  spoken  of  as  if  it  were 
merely  an  accompaniment  of  bread,  and  thus  a  com- 
mon and  indispensable  article  of  food  ;  but,  again,  its 
sharing  stands  out  as  signifying  far  more  than  is  meant 
by  an  ordinary  meal  or  feast.  An  explanation  of  its 
meaning,  frequently  offered  or  accepted  by  students 
and  specialists,  is  that  in  its  nature  it  is  a  preservative 
and  essential,  and  therefore  its  presence  adds  value  to 
an  offering  or  to  a  sacramental  rite.1  But  the  mind  can- 
not be  satisfied  with  so  superficial  an  interpretation  as 
this,  in  view  of  many  things  in  text  and  tradition  that 
go  to  show  a  unique  sacredness  of  salt  as  salt,  rather 
than  as  a  preserver  and  enlivener  of  something  that  is 
of  more  value.  It  is  evident  that  the  true  symbolism 
and  sanctity  of  salt  as  the  nexus  of  a  covenant  lie 
deeper  than  is  yet  admitted,  or  than  has  been  formally 
stated  by  any  scholar. 

1  See  W^Robertson  Smith's  Religion  of  the  Semites,  pp.  203,  252  ;  Art. 
"Salt,"  by  W.  R.  S.  in  Encyc.  Brit.;  Trumbull's  Studies  in  Oriental 
Social  Life,  pp.  106-112,  with  citations  ;  Norwach's  Lehrbuch  der 
Hebrceischen  Archceologie,  II,  p.  245,  etc. 


Ill 

BIBLE  REFERENCES  TO  THE  RITE 


Ill 

BIBLE  REFERENCES  TO  THE  RITE 

A  "covenant  of  salt"  seems  to  stand  quite  by  itself 
in  the  Bible  record.  Covenants  made  in  blood,  and 
again  as  celebrated  by  sharing  a  common  meal,  and 
by  the  exchange  of  weapons  and  clothing,  and  in 
various  other  ways,  are  of  frequent  mention  ;  but  a 
covenant  of  salt  is  spoken  of  only  three  times,  and  in 
every  one  of  these  cases  as  if  it  were  of  peculiar  and 
sacred  significance ;  each  case  is  unique. 

The  Lord  speaks  of  his  covenant  with  Aaron  and 
his  sons,  in  the  privileges  of  the  priesthood  in  per- 
petuity, as  such  a  covenant.  To  him  he  says  :  "All 
the  heave  offerings  of  the  holy  things,  which  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel  offer  unto  the  Lord,  have  I  given  thee, 
and  thy  sons  and  thy  daughters  with  thee,  as  a  due 
for  ever :  it  is  a  covenant  of  salt  for  ever  before  the 
Lord  unto  thee  and  to  thy  seed  with  thee."  l 

Of  the  Lord's  covenant  with  David  and  his  seed,  in 
the  rights  and  privileges  of  royalty,  Abijah  the  king  of 

l  Num.  18  :  19. 

17 


1 8  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

Judah  says  to  Jeroboam,  the  rival  king  of  Israel :  "  O 
Jeroboam  and  all  Israel ;  ought  ye  not  to  know  that 
the  Lord,  the  God  of  Israel,  gave  the  kingdom  over 
Israel  to  David  for  ever,  even  to  him  and  to  his  sons  by 
a  covenant  of  salt  f,il 

Again,  the  Lord,  through  Moses,  enjoins  it  upon 
the  people  of  Israel  to  be  faithful  in  the  offering  of 
sacrifices  at  his  altar,  according  to  the  prescribed 
ritual.  "  Neither  shalt  thou  suffer  the  salt  of  the 
covenant  of  thy  God,"  he  says,  "to  be  lacking  from 
thy  meal  offering :  with  all  thine  oblations  thou  shalt 
offer  salt"  2 

While  the  word  "covenant"  appears  more  than 
two  hundred  and  fifty  times  in  the  Old  Testament,  it 
is  a  remarkable  fact  that  the  term  "covenant  of  salt" 
occurs  in  only  these'  three  instances,  and  then  in  such 
obviously  exceptional  connections.  The  Lord's  cove- 
nant with  Aaron  and  his  seed  in  the  priesthood,  and 
with  David  and  his  seed  in  the  kingship,  is  as  a  cove- 
nant of  salt,  perpetual  and  unalterable.  And  God's 
people  in  all  their  holy  offerings  are  to  bear  in  mind 
that  the  salt  is  a  vital  element  and  factor,  if  they 
would  come  within  the  terms  of  the  perpetual  and 
unalterable  covenant 

In  the  Bible,   God  speaks   to   men  by   means    of 

1  2  Chron.  13  :  5.  2  Lev.  2  :  13. 


PERPETUAL  AND    UNALTERABLE  1 9 

human  language  ;  and  in  the  figures  of  speech  which 
he  employs  he  makes  use  of  terms  which  had  and 
have  a  well-known  significance  among  men.  His 
employment  of  the  term  " covenant  of  salt"  as  im- 
plying permanency  and  unchangeableness  to  a  degree 
unknown  to  men,  except  in  a  covenant  of  blood  as  a 
covenant  of  very  life,  is  of  unmistakable  significance. 

There  are  indeed  incidental  references,  in  another 
place  in  the  Old  Testament,  to  the  prevailing  primitive 
idea  that  salt-sharing  is  covenant-making.  These 
references  should  not  be  overlooked. 

In  many  lands,  and  in  different  ages,  salt  has  been 
considered  the  possession  of  the  government,  or  of 
the  sovereign  of  the  realm,  to  be  controlled  by  the 
ruler,  as  a  source  of  life,  or  as  one  of  its  necessaries, 
for  his  people.  In  consequence  of  this  the  receiving 
of  salt  from  the  king's  palace  has  been  deemed  a  fresh 
obligation  of  fidelity  on  the  part  of  his  subjects.  This 
is  indicated  in  a  Bible  passage  with  reference  to  the 
rebuilding  by  Zerubbabel  of  the  Temple  at  Jerusalem, 
under  the  edict  of  Cyrus,  king  of  Persia.  "  The  adver- 
saries of  Judah  and  Benjamin"  protested  against  the 
work  as  a  seditious  act.  In  giving  their  reason  for  this 
course  they  said  :  "  Now  because  we  eat  the  salt  of 
the  palace  [because  we  are  bound  to  the  king  by  a 
covenant  of  salt],  and  it  is  not  meet  for  us  to  see  the 


20  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

king's  dishonor,  therefore  have  we  sent  and  certified 
the  king."1 

And  so  again  when  King  Darius  showed  his  confi- 
dence in  the  Jews  by  directing  a  supply,  from  the  royal 
treasury,  of  material  for  sacrifices  at  the  Temple,  and 
a  renewal  of  the  means  of  covenanting,  he  declared  : 
"  Moreover  I  make  a  decree  what  ye  shall  do  to  these 
elders  of  the  Jews  for  the  building  of  this  house  of 
God  :  that  of  the  king's  goods,  even  of  the  tribute 
beyond  the  river,  expenses  be  given  with  all  dili- 
gence unto  these  men,  that  they  be  not  hindered. 
And  that  which  they  have  need  of,  both  young  bul- 
locks, and  rams,  and  lambs,  for  burnt  offerings  to  the 
God  of  heaven,  wheat,  salt,  wine,  and  oil,  according 
to  the  word  of  the  priests  which  are  at  Jerusalem,  let 
it  be  given  them  day  by  day  without  fail :  that  they 
may  offer  sacrifices  of  sweet  savor  unto  the  God  of 
heaven,  and  pray  for  tiie  life  of  the  king,  and  of  his 
sons." 2  And  again,  in  further  detail:  "  Unto  an  hundred 
talents  of  silver,  and  to  an  hundred  measures  of  wheat, 
and  to  an  hundred  baths  of  wine,  and  to  an  hundred 
baths  of  oil,  and  salt  without  prescribing  how  much  ;  "  3 
the  more  salt  they  took,  the  more  surely  and  firmly 
they  were  bound. 
1  Ezra  4  :  14.  *  Ezra  6 :  8-ia  *  Ezra  7  :  22. 


IV 
BREAD  AND  SALT 


IV 
BREAD  AND  SALT 

"There  would  be  nothing  eatable,"  says  Plutarch, 
"without  salt,  which,  mixed  with  flour,  seasons  bread 
also.  Hence  it  was  that  Neptune  and  Ceres  [or 
Poseidon  and  Demeter  as  the  Greeks  called  them] 
had  both  the  same  temple."  l  And  from  the  days  of 
Plutarch  until  now,  as  has  been  already  mentioned,  it 
has  been  customary  to  speak  of  the  "  covenant  of 
salt "  as  synonymous  with  the  "  covenant  of  bread  and 
salt ;  "  or  as  identical  with  the  covenant  of  food-sharing 
in  the  rite  of  hospitality.  But  the  covenant  of  salt 
among  primitive  peoples  has,  and  ever  has  had,  a 
sacredness  and  depth  of  meaning  far  beyond  what 
is  involved  in  the  ordinary  sharing  of  food. 

Even  the  sharing  of  water  between  two  persons,  or 
the  giving  and  receiving  of  a  drink  of  water,  is  a  com- 
pact of  peace  for  the  time  being,  as  a  truce  between 
enemies.2    The  sharing  of  bread,  or  of  flesh,  means  yet 

1  Plutarch's  Sympos.  (Goodwin's  edition),  Book  IV.    Ques.  IV.,  §  3. 
2  See  Trumbull's  Studies  in  Oriental  Social  Life,  pp.  361-363. 

23 


24  THE  COVENANT  OE  SALT 

more  than  the  sharing  of  water.  It  brings  those  who 
join  in  it  into  the  league  or  treaty  of  hospitality,  by 
which  the  host  is  pledged  to  his  guest  while  he  is  a 
guest,  and  for  a  reasonable  time  after  his  departure.1 

Durzee  Bey,  a  native  chieftain  in  Mesopotamia, 
having  put  a  bit  of  roast  meat  into  the  mouth  of  Dr. 
Hamlin,  as  they  sat  together  in  his  domicil,  said  :  "  By 
that  act  I  have  pledged  you  every  drop  of  my  blood, 
that  while  yon  are  in  my  territory  no  evil  shall  come 
to  you.  For  that  space  of  time  we  are  brothers."  2 
"  Where  enmity  subsists,  the  fiercer  Arabs  will  not  sit 
down  at  the  same  table  with  their  adversary ;  sitting 
down  together  betokens  reconciliation."  3 

A  covenant  of  salt  is,  however,  permanent  and  un- 
alterable, as  the  truce  or  treaty  is  not.  Yet  this  dis- 
tinction, recognized  by  Orientals,  does  not  seem  to  be 

1  See  Burckhardt's  Travels  in  Syria,  p.  294  f.  ;  Beduinenund  Wahaby, 
p.  144  f.  ;  Niebuhr's  Beschreibung  von  Arabien,  p.  48  ;  Lane's  The 
Thousand  and  One  Nights,  II.,  423,  note  21  ;  Wetzstein's  Sprachliches, 
p.  28  f.  ;  Denham  and  Clapperton's  Travels  and  Discoveries  in  Africa, 
p.  xli  ;  Warburton's  The  Crescent  and  the  Cross,  fifth  ed.,  II.,  167  f.  ; 
Pierrotti's  Customs  and  Traditions  of  Palestine,  p.  210  f.  ;  Burton's  Pil- 
grimage to  El  Medinah  and  Meccah,  III.,  86;  Thomson's  The  Land 
and  the  Book,  II.,  40-43;  Merrill's  East  of  the  Jordan,  pp.  488-491; 
Harmer's  Observations,  fifth  ed.,  I.,  388  f.  ;  Doughty' s  Travels  in 
Arabian  Deserts,  I.,  228;  Studies  in  Oriental  Social  Life,  pp.  73-142; 
W.  Robertson  Smith's  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  p.  149  f. 
Compare  also  Gen.  24  :  12-14  '<  Deut.  23  :  3,  4  ;  1  Sam.  25  :  10,  11  ;  1  Kings 
18:4;  Job  22  :  7  ;  Matt.  10  :  42  ;  Mark  9  :  41  ;  John  4  :  9. 

»  Hamlin's  Among  the  Turks,  p.  175  f. 

8  Russell's  Natural  History  of  Aleppo,  Book  II.,  chap.  4  (I.,  232). 


A  LI  BABA   AND   THE  ROBBER  CAPTAIN     2$ 

observed  by  all  writers  on  Oriental  customs,  even  by 
those  who  are  generally  observant  and  experienced. 

It  is  true  that  the  sharing  of  salt  is  usually  an  ac~ 
companiment  of  bread-sharing;  hence,  a  covenant  of 
salt  between  two  parties  is  generally,  although  not 
always,  made  by  their  partaking  of  bread  and  salt 
together.  Moreover,  because  salt  is  a  common  in- 
gredient in  Oriental  bread,  the  eating  of  bread  with 
another  in  the  East  may  include  the  sharing  of  salt 
with  him ;  but  in  such  a  case  it  is  the  salt,  and  not  the 
bread,  which  is  the  nexus  of  the  perpetual  covenant, 
in  its  distinction  from  the  temporary  compact  of  hos- 
pitality in  the  sharing  of  bread.  The  bread  is  the 
vehicle  of  the  covenant-making  salt.  Indeed,  they 
have  it  for  a  proverb  among  Arabs  and  Syrians,  "  My 
bread  had  no  salt  in  it,"  as  a  mode  of  accounting  for 
any  act  of  treachery,  or  failure  in  fidelity  toward  one 
who  was  a  partaker  of  the  bread  of  hospitality. 

In  the  famous  Oriental  story  of  "AH  Baba  and  the 
Forty  Thieves,"  the  captain  of  the  robber  band  who 
had  visited  Ali  Baba  in  order  to  murder  him  was  un- 
willing to  partake  of  any  food  which  had  salt  in  it. 
This  carefulness  it  was  that  excited  the  suspicion  of 
Morgiana,  the  faithful  slave  girl,  and  led  her  to  ask, 
"Who  is  he  that  eateth  [only]  meat  wherein  is  no 
salt?"      And  when  she  recognized  the  robber  captain 


26  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

under  his  disguise,  she  said  to  herself:  "So  ho  !  this 
is  the  cause  why  the  villain  eateth  not  of  salt,  for  that 
he  seeketh  now  an  opportunity  to  slay  my  master, 
whose  mortal  enemy  he  is."  l  This  man  was  ready 
enough  to  partake  of  bread  and  flesh  as  a  guest,  and 
then  strike  his  host  to  the  heart  in  violation  of  all  the 
obligations  of  hospitality ;  as,  indeed,  has  been  done  in 
many  a  case  in  the  East  in  early  and  in  recent  times,2 
but  he  could  not  consent,  robber  and  murderer  as  he 
was,  to  disregard  a  sacred  "covenant  of  salt." 

The  story  of  the  origin  of  the  dynasty  of  the  Saf- 
faride  Kaleefs,  in  the  ninth  century,  is  an  illustration 
of  the  surpassing  power  of  the  covenant  of  salt.  Laiss- 
el-Safar,  or  Laiss  the  coppersmith,  was  an  obscure 
worker  in  brass  and  copper,  in  Khorassan,  a  province 
of  Persia.  His  son  Yakoob  wrought  for  a  time  at  his 
father's  trade,  and  then  became  a  robber  chieftain. 

Having  on  one  occasion  found  his  way  by  night 
through  a  subterranean  passage  into  the  treasury  of 
the  palace  of  the  governor,  Nassar  Seyar,  who  was 
then  in  control  of  Seiestan,  Yakoob  gathered  jewels 
and   costly  stuns,  and  was  proceeding  to   carry  them 

1  Burton's  Thousand  and  One  Nights,  "  Supplemental  Nisrhts  " 
HI.,  398  f- 

8  See,  for  example,  Layard's  account  of  the  murder  of  a  Koordish  Bey 
by  Ibraheem  Agha,  after  the  latter  had  risen  from  the  table  of  the  former 
{Nineveh  and  its  Remains,  I.,  96  f.)  ;  also  his  account  of  other  murder- 
ous violations  of  the  rites  of  hospitality  {Ibid.,  I.,  107  f.  ;  Nineveh  and 
Babylon,  p.  38). 


FOUNDER    OF  SAFFARIDE  DYNASTY        27 

off  Striking  his  bare  foot,  in  the  darkness,  against  a 
hard  and  sharp  substance  on  the  floor  of  the  room,  he 
thought  it  might  be  a  jewel,  and  stooped  to  pick  it 
up.  Putting  it  to  his  tongue,  to  test  it  after  the  man- 
ner of  lapidaries,  he  discovered  that  it  was  rock  salt 
that  he  had  tasted  in  the  governor's  palace.  At  once 
he  threw  down  his  bale  of  stolen  goods,  and  left  the 
palace  by  the  way  he  had  entered. 

The  signs  of  attempted  robbery  being  found  the 
next  morning,  the  governor  caused  a  proclamation  to 
be  made  throughout  the  city,  that,  if  the  man  who  had 
entered  the  treasury  would  make  himself  known  at  the 
palace,  he  should  be  pardoned,  and  should  be  shown 
marks  of  special  favor.  Yakoob  accordingly  presented 
himself  at  the  palace,  and  freely  told  his  story.  The 
governor  felt  that  a  man  who  would  hold  thus  sacred 
the  covenant  of  salt  could  be  depended  on,  and  Yakoob 
was  given  a  position  near  his  person. 

Step  by  step  Yakoob  went  fonvard  to  power  and 
honors,  until  he  was  chief  ruler  of  Khorassan,  and 
founder  of  the  Saffaride  dynasty  in  the  Persian  kha- 
leefate.  He  died  A.D.  878,  and  was  succeeded  by 
his  brother,  Omar  II.1 

Baron  du  Tott,  the  Hungarian  French  traveler 
among  the  Turks  and  Tatars,  tells  of  his  experience 

1  Price's  Mohammedan  History,  II.,  229  f. 


28  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

in  this  line  with  one  Moldovanji  Pasha,  who  desired  a 
closer  intimacy  than  was  practicable  in  the  brief  time 
the  two  were  to  be  together.  "  I  had  already,"  says 
the  Baron  du  Tott,  "  attended  him  halfway  down  the 
staircase  [of  my  house],  when  stopping,  and  turning 
briskly  to  one  of  my  domestics  who  followed  me, 
'  Bring  me  directly,'  said  he,  'some  bread  and  salt'  I 
was  not  less  surprised  at  this  fancy  than  at  the  haste 
which  was  made  to  obey  him.  What  he  requested 
was  brought,  when,  taking  a  little  salt  between  his 
fingers,  and  putting  it  with  a  mysterious  air  on  a  bit 
of  bread,  he  ate  it  with  a  devout  gravity,  assuring  me 
that  I  might  now  rely  on  him."  Y 

Stephen  Schultz,  in  his  Travels  through  Europe, 
Asia,  and  Africa,  gives  this  illustration  of  the  binding 
force  of  the  covenant  of  salt :  "On  the  13th  of  June 
[1754]  the  deacon,  Joseph  Diab,  a  custom-house 
clerk,  was  at  table  with  us.  Referring  to  the  salt 
which  stood  on  the  table,  he  said  that  the  Arabs  make 
use  of  it  as  a  token  of  friendship.  While  they  are 
fond  of  it,  they  do  not  like  to  place  it  on  the  table. 
On  one  occasion,  when  he  was  with  a  caravan  travel- 
ing to  Babel  [Bagdad],  they  came  into  a  neighbor- 
hood where  Arabs  were  encamped.      In  the  caravan 


1  Baron  du  Tott's  Memoirs  of  the  Turks  and  Tartars,  Part  I.,  p.  214, 
quoted  in  Bush's  Illustrations  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 


THE  SALT  ALLIANCE  29 

was  a  rich  merchant  Seeing  that  one  of  the  Arabs 
was  making  ready  to  come  to  the  caravan,  he  buried 
his  money  in  the  ground,  built  a  fire  over  it,  and  then 
sat  down  to  eat  with  the  others  near  the  fire.  When 
the  Arabs  arrived  they  were  welcomed  pleasantly,  and 
invited  to  eat.  They  accepted  the  invitation  and  sat 
down  at  the  table.  But  when  their  leader  saw  the 
salt  on  the  table,  he  said  to  the  merchant,  '  My  loss  is 
your  gain  ;  for  as  I  have  eaten  at  a  table  on  which  is 
salt,  I  cannot,  must  not,  harm  you.'  When  that 
caravan  started  on  its  way,  the  Arab  leader  not  only 
refrained  from  taking  what  he  had  intended  to  de- 
mand, but  he  escorted  them  without  reward  as  far  as 
the  Euphrates,  and  gave  them  over  into  the  care  of 
the  Pasha  of  Bagdad,  as  friends  of  his  prince  Achsam. 
They  were  now  safe." 

Schultz  adds  :  "  It  is  not  customary  among  Arabs 
to  place  salt  on  a  common  table,  but  only  when  an 
Arab  prince  enters  into  an  alliance  with  a  pacha,  which 
is  called  baret-millahy  or  the  salt  alliance.  This  is 
done  as  follows  :  The  Arab  prince,  when  he  wishes  to 
live  within  the  jurisdiction  of  a  pacha  sends  messen- 
gers to  him  to  ask  whether  he  may  dwell  in  his  terri- 
tory as  an  ally.  If  the  pacha  consents,  he  sends  mes- 
sengers to  the  prince,  informing  him  that  they  will 
meet  on  such  a  day.      When  the  day  arrives  the  pacha 


30  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

rides  out  to  meet  the  prince,  in  the  field  which  he  has 
selected  for  his  dwelling,  and  conducts  him  to  his  own 
quarters.  Then  the  Arab  prince  asks  the  pacha  how 
much  he  is  to  pay  for  permission  to  dwell  in  that  field. 
The  bargain  is  soon  concluded,  according  to  the  ex- 
tent of  the  Arab  encampment. 

"As  soon  as  the  bargain  is  concluded,  a  repast  is 
prepared,  and  a  salt-cellar,  with  some  pieces  of  bread 
on  a  flat  dish,  is  carried  round  the  apartment  by  the 
pacha's  servants.  The  dish  is  first  presented  to  the 
pacha,  who  takes  a  piece  of  bread,  dips  it  in  the  salt, 
and,  holding  it  between  two  fingers  toward  the  prince, 
calls  out,  '  Salaam  ! '  that  is  Peace,  '  I  am  the  friend 
of  your  friend,  and  the  enemy  of  your  enemy.'  The 
dish  is  now  presented  to  the  Arab  prince,  who  like- 
wise takes  a  piece  of  bread,  dips  it  in  the  salt,  and 
says  to  the  pacha,  '  Peace  !  I  am  the  friend  of  your 
friend,  and  the  enemy  of  your  enemy  ! '  Thereupon 
the  dish  with  the  bread  is  handed  to  the  chief  men  of 
the  Arab  prince,  and  to  the  ministers  of  the  pacha,  who 
receive  it  in  the  same  manner  as  their  principals ;  with 
the  exception  that  they  simply  say,  on  taking  the 
bread,  '  Salaam  ! '  <  Peace  '"  ' 

Don    Raphel    speaking    of  the   "conventions,"   or 

1  Schultz's  Leitungen  des  Hochsten  nach  seinem  Rath  auf  den  Reisen 
durch  Europa,  Asia,  und  A/rika,  Part  V.,  p.  246,  quoted  in  Rosenmuller's 
Des  alte  und  neue  Morgenland,  II.,  152  f. 


CUSTOM  OF  THE  DRUZES  31 

rather  the  "covenants,"  which  are  recognized  by  the 
Bed'ween  as  sacredly  binding  on  them,  says  :  "  One 
kind  of  these  conventions  is  made  by  their  putting 
some  grains  of  salt  with  pieces  of  bread  into  each 
other's  mouths,  saying,  '  By  the  rite  of  bread  and 
salt,'  or,  '  By  this  salt  and  bread,  I  will  not  betray 
thee.'  No  oath  is  added  ;  for  the  more  sacred  an 
oath  appears  to  be,  the  more  easily  does  an  Arab  vio- 
late it.  But  a  convention  concluded  in  this  manner 
derives  its  force  merely  from  opinion,  and  this  is  in- 
deed extraordinary.  ...  If  a  stranger  who  meets  with 
them  in  the  desert,  or  comes  to  a  camp,  or  before  he 
departs  from  a  city,  can  oppose  this  alliance  to  their 
rapacity,  his  baggage  and  his  life  are  more  safe,  even 
in  the  midst  of  the  desert,  than  during  the  first  days 
of  his  journey  with  the  securities  of  twenty  hostages. 
The  Arab  with  whom  he  has  eaten  bread  and  salt, 
and  all  the  Arabs  of  his  tribe,  consider  him  as  their 
countryman  and  brother.  There  is  no  kind  of  respect, 
no  proof  of  regard,  which  they  do  not  show  him."  l 

Volney  says  of  the  Druzes,  "When  they  have  con- 
tracted with  their  guests  the  sacred  engagement  of 
bread  and  salt,  no  subsequent  event  can  make  them  vio- 
late it."  2     This  Volney  illustrates  by  notable  incidents. 

1  Don  Raphel's.  The  Bedouins,  or  Arabs  of  the  Desert,  Part  II,  p.  59  ; 
quoted  in  Burder's  Oriental  Customs,  2d  ed.,  p.  72  f. 
2  Volney' s  Travels,  II.,  76. 


32  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

Mrs.  Finn,  wife  of  the  English  consul  at  Jerusalem, 
who  was  long  resident  in  the  East,  gives  the  following 
illustration  of  the  importance  of  salt  as  well  as  bread 
to  a  binding  covenant.  After  a  feast  in  the  Hebron 
district  of  Palestine,  one  of  the  persons  who  shared  it 
was  waylaid  and  murdered  by  hired  assassins.  "  One 
of  the  men  (Abdallah)  concerned  in  the  deed,  not  as 
an  actor,  but  as  spectator,  had  been  the  night  before 
actually  eating  with  the  victim.  On  hearing  what  had 
happened,  the  poor  fellah  woman  who  had  cooked 
their  supper,  and  who  was  much  attached  to  the 
murdered  man,  bewailed  herself,  beating  her  breast 
and  crying,  '  Wo  is  me  !  wo  is  me  !  I  left  out  the 
salt  by  mistake  when  making  the  bread  last  night  for 
their  supper.  Oh  that  I  had  put  it  in  !  then  would 
not  Abdallah  have  dared  to  let  my  lord  be  murdered 
in  his  presence  ;  he  would  have  been  compelled  to 
defend  him  after  eating  his  bread  and  salt.  Wo  is 
me  !  wo  is  me  !'  Ml 

John  Macgregor,  while  on  the  upper  Jordan  in  his 
canoe  Rob  Roy,  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Arabs. 
As  he  parleyed  with  the  old  shaykh  in  his  tent,  Mac- 
gregor opened  a  box  of  fine  salt  and  proffered  a  pinch 
of  it  to  his  captor.  The  shaykh  had  never  before  seen 
salt  so  white  and  fine,  and,  therefore,  thinking  it  was 

1  Survey  of  Western  Palestine,  Special  Papers,  p.  355. 


JOHN  MACGREGOR' S  EXPERIENCE  33 

sugar,  he  tasted  it.  Instantly  Macgregor  put  a  portion 
also  into  his  own  mouth,  and  with  a  loud,  laughing 
shout  he  clapped  the  old  shaykh  on  his  back. 

The  shaykh  was  dumbfounded.  His  followers  won- 
dered what  had  happened.  '"What  is  it?  '  all  asked 
from  him.  '  Is  it  sukker  ?  '  He  answered  demurely, 
'  La,  meleh  ! '  ("No,  it's  salt ! ")  Even  his  home  secre- 
tary laughed  at  his  chief."  "We  had  now  eaten  salt 
together,"  says  Macgregor,  "and  in  his  own  tent,  and 
so  he  was  bound  by  the  strongest  tie,  and  he  knew 
it."  The  result  was  that  Macgregor  and  his  canoe 
were  carried  back  in  triumph  to  the  river,  and  speeded 
on  their  way,  while  the  people  on  the  banks  shouted 
"salaams"  to  their  brother  in  the  covenant  of  salt.1 

Salt  alone  is  a  basis  of  an  enduring  covenant,  but 
bread  alone  is  not  so.  Yet  bread  and  salt  may  be 
such  a  basis,  because  there  is  salt  as  well  as  bread 
there.  So  commonly  does  salt  go  with  bread  that  it 
is  the  exception  when  they  are  not  together.  Our 
English  Bible  asks,  at  Job  6 :  6,  "Can  that  which  hath 
no  savor  be  eaten  without  salt?  "  But  the  Septuagint 
reads  :   "Can  bread  be  eaten  without  salt?  "  2 

In  India  it  is  much  the  same  as  in  Arabia,  Pales- 
tine,   and    Persia.      In    the    Mahabharata,    the   great 

1  Macgregor' s  The  Rob  Roy  on  the  Jordan,  p.  259  f. 
2 See  Sweet's  version  of  The  Septuagint,  in  loco. 


34  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

treasure-house  of  Hindoo  wisdom,  the  covenant  of 
bread  and  salt  finds  specific  recognition.  When 
Krishna  urges  the  hero  Kama  to  join  with  him  in  the 
war  against  the  Kauravas,  he  says  to  him  :  "If  you 
will  accompany  me  and  join  the  Pandavas,  they  will 
all  respect  you  as  their  elder  brother,  and  exalt  you 
to  the  sovereignty."  But  Kama  cannot  be  persuaded 
to  this  treacherous  course,  although  he  knows  that  to 
be  true  will  cost  him  his  life.  "  I  have  seen  bad 
omens,"  he  says,  "  and  I  know  I  shall  be  slain  ;  but  I 
have  eaten  the  bread  and  salt  of  the  Kauravas,  and 
I  am  resolved  to  fight  on  their  side."  1 

Again,  when  Yudhishthira  asked  permission  of 
Bhishma  and  Drona  to  fight  against  the  Kauravas, 
they  granted  his  request,  and  at  the  same  time  said  : 
"We  fight  on  the  side  of  the  Kauravas  because  for 
many  years  we  have  eaten  their  bread  and  salt,  or 
otherwise  we  would  have  fought  for  you."  2 

In  Madagascar  also  the  covenant  of  salt  is  known, 
as  in  other  parts  of  the  East.3  And  thus  on  every 
continent  and  on  the  islands  of  the  sea. 

1  Wheeler's  History  of  India,  I.,  271. 
2  Ibid.,  I.,  297  f.    Compare  this  with  Ezra  4  : 1-14. 
3M.  Hamelin's  Adventures  in  Madagascar,  quoted  in  "The  Madagas- 
car News,"  Sept.  9,  1893. 


V 

SALT    REPRESENTING   BLOOD 


SALT  REPRESENTING  BLOOD 

There  are  indications  in  the  customs  of  primitive 
peoples  that  "  blood  "  and  "  salt "  are  recognized  as 
in  some  sense  interchangeable  in  their  natures,  quali- 
ties, and  uses.  And  in  this,  as  in  many  another  mat- 
ter, the  trend  of  modern  science  seems  to  be  in  the 
line  of  primitive  indications. 

Peoples  who  have  not  salt  available  are  accustomed 
to  substitute  for  it  fresh  blood,  as  though  the  essential 
properties  of  salt  were  obtainable  in  this  way.  An 
observant  medical  scientist,  writing  of  his  travels  in 
eastern  Equatorial  Africa,  tells  of  the  habit  of  the 
Masai  people  of  drinking  the  warm  blood  fresh  from 
the  bullocks  they  kill ;  and  this  he  characterizes  as  "  a 
wise  though  repulsive  "  proceeding,  "  as  the  blood 
thus  drunk  provided  the  salts  so  necessary  in  human 
economy  ;  for  the  Masai  do  not  partake  of  any  salt  in 
its  common  form."  l 

Similarly,  Dr.  David  Livingstone  noted  the  fact  that 

1  Thomson's  Through  Masai  Land,  p.  430. 

37 


38  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

when  he  was  among  peoples  who  had  difficulty  in  pro- 
curing salt,  fresh -killed  meat  seemed  to  satisfy  the 
natural  craving  for  salt,  while  vegetable  diet  without 
salt  caused  indigestion.1  In  portions  of  China,  also, 
where  salt  is  not  obtainable,  or  where  it  is  too  expen- 
sive for  ordinary  use,  the  blood  of  pigs  or  fowls  is 
carefully  preserved  and  eaten  as  if  a  substitute  for  salt. 

Professor  Bunge  of  Basel,  who  is  quite  an  authority 
in  the  realm  of  physiological  and  pathological  chem- 
istry, speaking  on  the  relation  of  salt  and  blood,  says 
that  "at  every  period,  in  every  part  of  the  world,  and 
in  every  climate,  there  are  people  who  use  salt  as  well 
as  those  who  do  not.  The  people  who  take  salt, 
though  differing  from  each  other  in  every  other  re- 
spect, are  all  characterized  by  a  vegetable  diet ;  in 
the  same  way,  those  who  do  not  use  any  salt  are  all 
alike  in  taking  animal  food." 

He  says,  moreover :  "  It  is  .  .  .  noteworthy  that  the 
people  who  live  on  an  animal  diet  without  salt,  care- 
fully avoid  loss  of  blood  when  they  slaughter  the 
animals.  This  was  told  me  by  four  different  natural- 
ists who  have  lived  among  flesh-eaters  in  various  parts 
of  northern  Russia  and  Siberia.  The  Samoyedes, 
when  dining  off  reindeer  flesh,  dip  every  mouthful  in 
blood  before  eating  it.      The  Esquimaux  in  Greenland 

1  Livingstone's  Travels  in  South  Africa,  p.  26  f,  600. 


SALT  AND   SALTS  39 

are  said  to  plug  the  wound  as  soon  as  they  have  killed 
a  seal."  Like  testimony  comes  from  India,  Arabia, 
Africa,  Australia,  and  various  parts  of  America.1 

The  Jews  of  to-day,  who  are  careful  to  drain  the 
blood  from  slaughtered  animals  prepared  for  food, 
are  accustomed  to  put  salt  freely  on  the  meat  thus 
drained.  This  is  in  accordance  with  the  prescription 
of  the  Talmud,  for  the  purpose  of  absorbing  the  blood 
not  drawn  out  from  the  main  bloodvessels.  At  the 
close  of  two  hours  from  the  slaughtering,  the  meat  is 
washed  for  cooking.  Whatever  be  the  reason  ren- 
dered for  this  application  of  salt,  and  its  remaining  on 
the  flesh  for  a  time,  may  there  not  thus  be  an  in- 
stinctive supplying  of  the  salts  taken  away  by  drain- 
ing out  the  blood  ? 

"Salt"  and  "salts"  are  terms  often  used  interchange- 
ably in  the  common  mind.  While  they  are  distinct  as 
employed  by  a  scientist,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at 
that  they  are  confused  by  those  who  fail  to  note  the 
differences  ;  nor  is  it  important  to  consider  these 
differences  in  primitive  thought  and  customs. 

"A  salt,"  as  the  chemists  use  the  term,  is  a  com- 
bination of  an  acid  and  a  base.  There  are  many  salts 
in  use  in  the  world ;  among  these  the  one  best  known 

1  Bunge's    Text-Book    of   Physiological   and  Pathological  Chemistry, 
Wooldridge's  translation,  pp.  122-129. 


40  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

and  most  widely  used  and  valued  is  sod'um  chloride, 
or  what  is  popularly  known  as  "common  salt"  This 
has  been  used  and  prized,  the  world  over,  among  all 
classes  of  men,  from  the  earliest  historic  times. 

Salt  has  long  been  popularly  claimed  as  an  im- 
portant element  of  the  liquids  of  the  body,  as  shown 
in  the  blood,  in  the  tears,  and  in  the  perspiration,  of 
mankind.  Later  scientific  experiments  have  con- 
firmed ancient  and  traditional  claims,  that  saline 
injections  avail  like  blood  transfusion  for  the  preser- 
vation of  life  in  an  emergency.1 

It  has  long  been  common  among  ordinary  people  to 
administer  salt  to  one  taken  with  a  hemorrhage  of  the 
lungs,  or  stomach,  or  nose.  This  is  the  folk-lore 
remedy  in  many  regions.  Moreover,  under  careful 
medical  and  surgical  direction  it  is  now  customary  in 
the  hospitals  to  keep  on  hand  a  warm  solution  of  salt 
to  inject  into  the  veins  or  tissues  of  persons  brought 
in  sinking  from  a  sudden  loss  of  blood.  Whatever 
connection  the  two  ideas — the  popular  and  the  scien- 
tific— may  or  may  not  have,  it  is  not  to  be  wondered 
at  that  it  has  long  been  thought  that,  when  blood  has 
gone  out  from  the  body,  salt  might  well  go  in. 


1  See  Des  Injections  sous-cutanees  massives  de  Solutions  salines,  par  le 
Dr.  L.  Fourmeaux,  Paris,  1897,  pp.  5-7  ;  also  Quain's  Diet,  of  Med.,  art. 
"  Transf.  of  Salt." 


TATAR    TRADITION  OF  SALT  4 1 

Blood  transfusion,  by  which  the  blood  or  life  of  a 
stronger  or  fresher  person  may  permeate  the  being  of 
a  sinking  one,  has  been  known  of  for  centuries,  and 
there  are  at  least  traces  of  it  in  tradition  from  the 
earliest  ages.1  More  recent  experiments  have  shown 
that  a  saline  solution  is  even  safer  and  more  efficacious 
than  the  warm  blood  from  another  life ;  now,  therefore, 
this  has  largely  taken  the  place  of  blood  in  supplying 
the  waste  occasioned  by  severe  hemorrhages.2  Various' 
illustrations  of  this  treatment  are  given  as  showing  that 
when  persons  were  in  a  very  low  condition  through 
loss  of  blood,  they  have  been  rescued  and  restored 
through  copious  injections  of  a  saline  solution.3 

The  use  of  blood  as  food  was  forbidden  to  Noah 
and  his  sons  after  the  Flood.4  A  tradition  of  the 
Turkish  or  Tatar  nations  says  that  Noah's  son  Japheth 
was  their  immediate  ancestor,  and  that  Toutug,  or 
Toumuk,  a  grandson  of  Japheth,  discovered  salt  as  an 
article  of  diet  by  accidentally  dropping  a  morsel  of 
food  on  to  salt  earth,  and  thus  becoming  acquainted 

1  See  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  115-126,  with  references  to  Pliny,  and  to 
Roussel,  and  others.    See,  also,  Dr.  Thomas  G.  Morton's  Transfusion  of 
Blood  ;  W.  H.  Howell's  American  Text  Book  of  Physiology,  p.  362. 
2  See  Dr.  Bartholow's  Hypodermatic  Medication,  pp.  126-142. 
3  See,  for  example,  Capital  Operations  without  Anaesthesia  and  the  Use 
of  Large  Saline  Infusion  in  Acute  Artcemia,  a  paper  read  by  Dr.  Buchanan 
before  the  National  Association  of  Railway  Surgeons,  pp.  18,  79. 
4  Gen.  9  :  4. 


42  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

with  the  savor  of  salt.1  This  carries  back  the  tradi- 
tional discovery  of  salt  to  the  age  when  blood  was 
first  forbidden  as  food. 

It  was  long  ago  claimed  by  some  that  the  red  cor- 
puscles of  the  blood  are  dependent  for  their  color  and 
vitality  on  the  presence  of  salt,  and  recent  scientific 
experiments  and  discussion  have  continued  in  the 
direction  of  the  question  thus  raised.2 

It  has  been  shown  by  experiment  that  many  of 
the  lower  animals,  as  well  as  man,  are  dependent  for 
their  life  on  salt  in  their  blood.  "  When  an  animal  is 
fed  with  a  diet  as  far  as  possible  free  from  salts,  but 
otherwise  sufficient,  it  dies  of  salts-hunger.  The  blood 
first  loses  inorganic  material,  then  the  organs.  The 
total  loss  is  very  small  in  proportion  to  the  quantity 
still  retained  in  the  body  ;  but  it  is  sufficient  to  cause 
the  death  of  a  pigeon  in  three  weeks,  and  of  a  dog 
in  six,  with  marked  symptoms  of  muscular  and  ner- 
vous weakness."  3  A  mode  of  torture  in  former  ages  is 
said  to  have  been  to  deprive  a  person  of  salt,  and  cause 
him  to  waste  away  with  painful  salt-hunger.  It  is  said 
that  this  mode  of  torture  is  still  employed  in  China. 

An  Armenian  story  says  that  when  a  band  of  their 

1  Price's  Mohammedan  History,  II.,  458. 
2  See  W.  H.  Howell's  American  Text  Book  of  Physiology,  p.  334. 
3Voit,   cited  in  Stewart's    Manual  of  Physiology,   Bailliere,  Tindall, 
and  Cox,  1895. 


DR.   STEVENS'S   THEORY  43 

people  was  in  a  stronghold  of  the  mountains,  and  was 
besieged  by  the  Turks,  the  latter  failing  to  subdue  the 
former  by  other  means  cut  off  the  supply  of  salt  from 
the  Armenians,  and  this  quickly  subdued  them. 

In  1830,  a  paper  by  Dr.  W.  Stevens,  read  before 
the  London  College  of  Physicians,  and  afterwards 
elaborated  and  published  in  a  volume,  contended  that 
the  salient  ingredients  of  the  blood,  "the  chief  of  which 
is  common  culinary  salt,  ...  is  the  cause  of  the  red 
color,  of  the  fluidity,  and  of  the  stimulating  property,  of 
the  vital  current."  Dr.  Stevens  claimed  that  the  poison 
of  the  rattlesnake,  and  various  other  poisons,  operate 
directly  on  the  blood,  and  produce  disease  or  death 
"by  interfering  with  the  agency  of  the  saline  matter."  1 

"  On  the  subject  of  the  poison  of  the  rattlesnake," 
Dr.  Stevens,  in  this  work,  asserts  that  "when  the 
muriate  of  soda  (common  salt)  is  immediately  ap- 
plied to  the  wound,  it  is  a  complete  antidote.  'When 
an  Indian,'  he  says,  'is  bitten  by  a  snake,  he  applies 
a  ligature  above  the  part,  and  scarifies  the  wound  to 
the  very  bottom  ;  he  then  stuffs  it  with  common  salt, 
and  after  this  it  soon  heals,  without  producing  any 
effect  on  the  general  system.'  "  In  view  of  the  fact 
that  it  might  be  objected  that  the  salt  is  not  the 
essential  means  of  cure,  but  is  an  addition  to  the  cura- 

1  See  London  Quarterly  Review,  XLVIII.,  96  (Dec,  1832,  375-391). 


44  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

tive  treatment,  Dr.  Stevens  says  that  he  has  "seen  a 
rabbit,  that  was  under  the  influence  of  the  rattlesnake 
poison,  drink  a  saturated  solution  of  muriate  of  soda 
with  great  avidity,  and  soon  recover  ;  while  healthy 
rabbits  would  not  taste  one  drop  of  the  same  strong 
saline  water  when  it  was  put  before  them." 

Dr.  Stevens  gives  various  illustrations,  out  of  primi- 
tive customs,  and  in  the  experience  of  modern  practi- 
tioners, of  curative  and  prophylactic  uses  of  salt  in 
the  treatment  of  fevers,  where  the  condition  of  the 
blood  seems  to  be  a  main  source  of  evil.  Aside  from 
the  question  whether  the  claims  of  Dr.  Stevens  have 
been  substantiated  by  later  researches  and  experi- 
ments, his  investigations  and  assertions  are  of  interest 
as  showing  that,  in  the  realm  of  modern  science  as  of 
primitive  practices,  salt  and  blood  have  seemed  to 
many  to  have  interchangeable  values. 

If,  indeed,  this  theory  of  Dr.  Stevens,  elaborated  so 
carefully  in  the  first  third  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
in  which  he  claims  that  salt  practically  represents 
blood,  stood  all  by  itself  in  the  history  of  medicine,  it 
would  have  less  importance  than  it  has  in  a  formal 
treatise  of  this  kind  ;  yet  even  then  it  would  show  that 
such  an  idea  had  before  now  found  a  place  in  the 
human  mind.  But  it  by  no  means  stands  thus  alone; 
a  similar  claim  has  been  made  both  earlier  and  later. 


GUMPELS   THEORY  OF  SALT  45 

Pliny,  in  his  day,  at  the  beginning  of  the  Christian 
era,  records  it  as  the  common  belief  that  salt  is  fore- 
most among  human  remedies  for  disease,  and  among 
preventives  of  sickness  of  all  kinds.1  He  gives  promi- 
nence to  salt  as  a  cure  of  leprosy,2  whereas  blood 
transfusion  and  blood  bathing  was  the  traditional  treat- 
ment of  that  disorder.3  Pliny  also  speaks  of  salt  itself, 
and  of  salt  fish  in  large  quantities,  as  a  supposed 
remedy  for  the  bite  of  serpents,4  this  being  in  the  line 
of  asserted  remedies  among  the  Indians,  according  to 
Dr.  Stevens.  Various  other  disorders,  especially  of 
the  blood,  are  named  by  Pliny  as  curable  by  salt. 

Seventy  years  after  the  treatise  of  Dr.  Stevens,  a 
volume,  recently  published  in  London  by  C.  Godfrey 
Gumpel  on  u  Common  Salt,"  5  claims  even  more  than 
Pliny,  or  any  writer  since  his  day,  for  "  the  vital  im- 
portance of  common  salt  for  our  whole  physical  and 
social  life."  He  claims  that  of  all  the  constituents  of 
our  life's  blood  "there  is  none  which  can  possibly  sur- 
pass  common  salt  in  its  necessity  for  a  strong  healthy 
blood,"  6  and  that  both  the  red  corpuscles  and  the 
white  are  largely  dependent  for  their  normal  condition 
on  "the  presence  of  common  salt  in  the  system." 

*  Hist." Nat.,  XXXI.,  45.  2  Ibid- 

3  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  116  f.,  125,  287  f.,  324. 
*  Hist.  Nat.,  XXXI.,  41 ;  XXXII.,  17. 
5  Common  Salt :  Its  Use  and  Necessity  for  the  Maintenance  of  Health 
and  the  Prevention  of  Disease,  p.  I.         6  Ibid.,  p.  37.  7  Ibid.,  p.  41. 


46  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

A  writer  in  the  Asiatic  Quarterly  Review,  not  long 
ago  declared  that  the  government  salt  monopoly  of  the 
British  Empire  in  India  (since  practically  abolished, 
or  modified)  was  a  cause  of  greater  evils  than  those 
resulting  from  either  opium  or  alcohol.  This  claim 
is  based  on  the  idea  that  a  lack  of  salt  by  the  com- 
mon people  of  India  tends  to  a  deterioration  of 
blood  and  consequent  loss  of  life.  Asiatic  cholera  is 
said  to  be  promoted  by  the  lack  of  salt  in  the  blood. 
Men  and  cattle  alike  are  said  to  be  sufferers  from  this 
cause,  and  the  soil  is  rendered  less  fertile.  Whether 
this  idea  is  well  grounded  is  a  minor  matter;  that  the 
idea  has  been  in  many  minds  is  not  to  be  questioned. 

Thus  it  will  be  seen  that  in  the  primitive  mind  salt 
and  blood  have  seemed  to  have  common  properties, 
and  to  be  in  a  sense  interchangeable,  while  the  more 
careful  observers  in  the  world  of  science  have  rather 
grown  toward  this  thought  than  away  from  it.  Be  it 
correct  or  incorrect,  the  human  mind  has  never  been 
able  to  rid  itself  of  the  idea. 

Salt  is  sometimes  used  in  the  rite  of  blood  brother- 
hood among  primitive  peoples,  as  is  also  wine,  both 
wine  and  salt  being  counted  the  equivalent  of  blood, 
and  the  original  and  the  substitute  being  sometimes 
employed  together  as  if  to  intensify  the  symbolism. 
Stanley  tells  of  the  use  of  salt  in  this  rite  on  the  occa- 


SALT  FOR  BLOOD  ON  THE  THRESHOLD     47 

sion  of  its  performance  with  Ngalyema  in  the  Congo 
region.1     And  so  again  in  other  cases.2 

It  is  a  common  practice  in  the  East  to  welcome 
an  honored  guest  to  one's  house  by  sacrificing  an 
animal  at  the  doorway,  and  letting  its  blood  pour  out 
on  the  threshold,  to  be  stepped  over  by  the  guest,  as 
a  mode  of  adoption,  or  of  covenant-making.3  When 
such  a  guest  comes  unexpectedly,  and  there  is  not 
time  to  obtain  an  animal  for  the  welcoming  sacrifice, 
it  is  customary  to  take  salt  and  strew  it  in  lieu  of 
blood  on  the  threshold, — salt  being  thus  recognized  as 
the  equivalent,  or  as  a  representative,  of  blood.4 

The  measure  of  love  and  honor  accorded  to  the  wel- 
comed guest  is  indicated  by  the  cost  or  preciousness 
of  the  sacrifice  on  the  threshold.  There  are  traditions, 
at  least,  of  the  sacrifice  of  a  son  of  the  host  in  this  way. 
Again  a  favorite  horse  has  been  thus  sacrificed.  More 
frequently  it  is  a  lamb  that  is  the  sacrifice.  If  there 
is  no  lamb  available,  a  fowl  or  a  pigeon  is  thus  offered. 
The  essential  factor  in  every  case  is  the  blood,  the 
life,  outpoured.  If,  however,  no  actual  blood  is  ob- 
tainable, salt,  as  representing  blood,  is  accepted  as 
indicating  the  love  and  the  spirit  which  prompts  the 

lThe  Congo,  I.,  383-385.  2  Ibid.,  II.,  21-24,  79-9°. 

3  See  Threshold  Covenant,  passim. 
4  Ibid.,  p.  5  ;  Griffis's  Mikado's  Empire,  pp.  467,  470  ;  Isabella  Bird's 
Untrodden  Tracks  in  Japan,  I.,  392.        , 


48  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

welcome,  according  to  the  giver's  means.  There 
could  hardly  be  a  fuller  proof  of  the  identity  of  salt 
and  blood  in  the  primitive  mind. 

When  a  Siamese  student  was  asked  by  the  writer 
whether  the  rite  of  blood-covenanting  was  known  in 
his  land,  he  replied  :  "There  is  no  'blood  covenant' 
so  far  as  I  know.  The  custom  is,  if  two  persons  are 
desirous  to  become  firm  friends  or  brothers  they  drink 
together  salted  water ;  then  each  takes  an  oath." 
He  also  suggested  that  he  had  heard  that  in  former 
times  they  drank  a  fowl's  blood  in  this  rite. 

Again,  the  mode  of  making  a  covenant  of  salt  in 
some  portions  of  the  East  coincides  with  this  sug- 
gested identification  of  salt  with  blood  in  the  primi- 
tive mind.  In  the  Lebanon  region,  where  the  blood 
covenant,  as  a  bond  of  union,  is  still  recognized  and 
practised,1  the  covenant  of  salt  is  also  well  known,  not 
only  as  between  new  comers  who  are  to  enter  into  a 
mutual  alliance,  but  as  bringing  into  union  friends 
who  would  be  as  one.  In  such  cases  a  sword  is  taken, 
and  salt  is  laid  on  its  blade.  The  two  friends  in  turn 
lick  of  the  salt  that  is  to  unite  them,  as  if  they  were 
tasting  of  common  blood  after  the  fashion  of  the 
"  blood-lickers  "  in  Mecca.2 

1  See  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  5-7. 
2 See  Smith's  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early  Arabia,  p.  48. 


SALT  FOR  BLOOD   IN  ARABIA  49 

Another  illustration  of  this  mode  is  given  by  Sir 
Frederick  Henniker,  in  his  notes  of  a  journey  in  the 
East  in  1819-20.1  It  was  a  shaykh  of  the  Arabs 
who  escorted  him  from  Mt.  Sinai  northward,  who 
cut  this  covenant  with  Sir  Frederick.  On  the  request 
being  made  for  such  an  assurance  of  fidelity  from 
the  shaykh,  "he  immediately  drew  his  sword,"  says 
Sir  Frederick,  "  placed  some  salt  upon  the  blade, 
and  then  put  a  portion  of  it  into  his  mouth,  and  de- 
sired me  to  do  the  same  ;  and  'Now,  cousin,'  said  he, 
4  your  life  is  as  sacred  as  my  own  ; '  or,  as  he  ex- 
pressed himself,  '  Son  of  my  uncle,  your  head  is  upon 
my  shoulders.'  "  Before  this  act  the  two  were  as 
cousins ;  now  they  were  as  one,  the  head  of  one  being 
upon  the  shoulders  of  the  other.  The  similarity  of 
this  rite  with  that  of  the  blood  covenant,  in  both  its 
form  and  meaning,  is  obvious. 

This  correspondence  of  salt  and  blood  in  primitive 
thought,  and  in  fact,  will  perhaps  throw  light  on  a 
disputed  reference  in  a  fragment  of  Ennius2  to  " salsus 
sanguis "  (salted  blood,  or  briny  blood).  It  would 
seem  that  as  the  Jews  held  that  the  blood  is  the  life, 
and  the  life  is  in  the  blood,  similarly  Greeks  and  Ro- 
mans recognized  the  truth  that  salt  is  in  the  blood, 
and  the  blood  is  salt. 

1  Visit  to  Egypt,  Nubia,  etc.,  p.  242.  2 Cited  in  Macrobius,  6,  2. 


5  O  THE  CO  VENA  NT  OF  SA  L  T 

In  the  second  century  there  were  Christian  ascetics 
who  refused  to  take  wine  in  the  eucharist  Among 
these  the  Elkesaites  and  the  Ebionites  employed  bread 
and  salt  instead  of  bread  and  wine.  This  seems  to 
have  been  a  recognition  of  the  fact  that  salt,  like  wine, 
represented  blood.1 

Professor  Hermann  Collitz,  of  Bryn  Mawr,  has 
suggested,  in  this  connection,  that  the  very  words,  in 
Latin,  for  salt  and  blood,  sal  and  sanguis,  are  from  the 
same  root.2 

Certainly  salt  is  sometimes  used  as  a  substitute  for 
blood  in  primitive  covenanting  ;  on  the  other  hand, 
blood  is  used  for  salt  among  some  primitive  peoples 
as  an  essential  accompaniment  of  food.  These  facts 
being  noticed  by  the  author  of  this  volume  first  sug- 
gested to  him  the  real  meaning  of  the  covenant  of  salt. 

i  See  Clementine,  Homilies,  IV.  6;  XIII.  8  ;  XIV.  i,  8  ;  XIX.  25,  cited 
in  art.  "  Elkesai  "  in  Smith  and  Wace's  Diet,  of  Christian  Biog. 

2  Professor  Collitz  says,  on  this  point :  "  The  Early  European  word  for 
salt,  sal  (nominative  sdl-d,  genitive  sal-n-es  according  to  Joh.  Schmidt) 
which  probably  goes  back  to  the  Indo-European  period,  may  be  derived 
from  the  same  root  to  which  the  Sanskrit  as-r-g  (genitive  as-n-as)  'blood,' 
and  Latin  s-an-gu-i-s  (genitive  s-an-gu-in-is)  belong.  The  latter,  as  F.  de 
Saussure  (Systeme  primitif  des  voyelles  Indo-Europeen??es,  Leipzig,  1897, 
p.  225)  has  shown,  comes  from  a  root  es,  which  lost  its  initial  vowel  if  the 
suffix  was  accented.  If  we  connect  the  two  groups  of  words,  we  should 
say  that  sal  is  derived  from  this  root  es  by  a  suffix  al,  similar  to  the 
suffix  el  in  the  word  for  '  sum  '  (Indo-European  sa'v-el,  from  root  sdv), 
or  to  the  suffix  a-lo  in  Greek  meg-a-lo-s  as  compared  with  meg-a-s.  The 
root  es  is  probably  the  same  from  which  the  word  for  'to  be '  (Sanskrit 
as-mi,  Latin  sum)  is  derived,  and  the  meaning  of  which  seems  to  have 
been  originally  '  to  live.' '' 


VI 
SALT  REPRESENTING  LIFE 


VI 

SALT  REPRESENTING  LIFE 

As  blood  is  synonymous  with  life  in  primitive 
thought  and  practice,1  and  as  salt  has  been  shown  to 
represent  blood  in  the  primitive  mind,  so  salt  seems 
to  stand  for  life  in  many  a  form  of  primitive  speech 
and  in  the  world's  symbolism.  When,  indeed,  we 
speak  of  salt  as  preserving  flesh  from  corruption,  we 
refer  to  the  staying  of  the  process  of  death  by  an 
added  element  of  life  ;  preserving  by  re-vivifying, 
rather  than  by  embalming. 

Plutarch  says  of  the  power  of  salt  in  this  direction  : 
"All  flesh  is  dead  and  part  of  a  lifeless  carcass  ;  but 
the  virtue  of  salt  being  added  to  it,  like  a  soul,  gives 
it  a  pleasing  relish  and  poignancy."  2  All  life  is  from 
the  one  Source  of  Life,  and  in  this  sense  it  is  that  life 
is  divine.  Thus  Plutarch  calls  attention  to  the  fact 
that  Homer3  speaks  of  salt  as  "divine,"  and  that 
"  Plato  delivers,  that  by  man's  laws  salt  is  to  be  ac- 

1  See  Blood  Covenant,  passim. 
2  Plutarch's  Symposiacs  (Goodwin's  ed.),  Book  IV.,  Quest.  IV.,  §  3. 
3  Homer's  Iliad,  IX.,  214. 

53 


54  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

counted  most  sacred."  l  No  other  material  is  thus 
reckoned  from  primitive  days  sacred  and  divine,  unless 
it  be  blood,  which  is  the  synonym  of  life.2 

An  Oriental  form  of  oath  sometimes  substitutes 
"salt"  for  "life;"  as  where  the  prime  minister  of 
Persia  in  a  conference  with  James  Morier,  secretary 
of  the  English  embassy,  at  Teheran,  early  in  this 
century,  swore  "  by  the  salt  of  Fatti  Ali  Shah  " — the 
then  reigning  Shah  of  Persia.3  Indeed,  to  swear  "by 
the  salt"  is  a  common  form  of  asseveration  among 
Arabs ;  as  to  swear  by  the  life,  one's  own  or  another's, 
is  a  well-known  oath  in  the  East.4 

Where  we  would  say  of  one  who  is  foremost  in 
inspiriting  and  enlivening  a  social  gathering,  "He  was 
the  life  of  the  party,"  the  Arabs  say,  "  He  was  the 
salt  of  the  party." 

The  "salt  of  youth"  is  synonymous  with  the  viril- 
ity and  vigor  of  life,  that  show  themselves  in  the  age 
of  strong  passion.  Thus  Justice  Shallow  says  to 
Master  Page  :  "  Though  we  are  justices  and  doctors 
and  churchmen,  Master  Page,  we  have  some  salt  of 

1  Plutarch's  Symposiacs  (Goodwin's  ed.)(  Book  V.,  Quest.  X.,  §§  i,  2. 

2  Lev.  17  :  11 ;  Deut.  12  :  23.     Blood  Covenant,  p.  38  f. 

3  Morier's  Journey  through  Persia,  p.  200. 

4  See,  for  example,  Arvieux  on  Customs  of  Bedouin  Arabs,  p.  43,  quoted 
in  Rosenmuller's  Das  alte  und  des  neue  Morgenland,  II.,  15. 


SALT  AS  LIFE  IN  ANCIENT  EGYPT         55 

our  youth  in  us."  l  Iago  refers  to  young  gallants  in 
their  passion,  "  as  salt  as  wolves  in  pride." 2  And 
Menecrates  refers  to  "salt  Cleopatra"  in  her  loves 
with  Antony.3  Mrs.  Browning  seems  to  have  a 
similar  idea  as  to  the  significance  of  salt,  when  she 
says  in  "A  Vision  of  Poets  :  " 

"  And  poor,  proud  Byron, — sad  as  grave 
And  salt  as  life  ;  forlornly  brave, 
And  quivering  with  the  dart  he  drave." 

Even  in  Plutarch's  day  this  truth  was  recognized  by 
the  Greeks  as  possibly  having  influenced  the  ancient 
Egyptians  to  forbid  salt  to  their  priests,  who  must  be 
pure  and  chaste,  because  salt  "  by  its  heat  is  provoca- 
tive and  apt  to  raise  lust."4  It  would  seem,  however, 
that  the  prohibition  of  salt  as  food  to  Egyptian  priests 
is  easier  to  be  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  it  was 
recognized  as  the  equivalent  of  blood  and  life.  There- 
fore those  priests  were  not  to  partake  of  salt,  "no, 
not  so  much  as  in  their  bread."  5 

In  this  line  of  thought  Florus  says  of  salt :  "  Con- 
sider farther  whether  its  power  of  preserving  a 
long  time  dead  bodies  from   rotting  be  not  a  divine 

1  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,  Act  II.,  Scene  3. 

2  Othello,  Act  III.,  Scene  3. 

3  Antony  and  Cleopatra,  Act  II.,  Scene  1. 

4  Plutarch's  Symposiacs,  BookV.,  Quest.  X.,  $%  1,  2.  5  Ibid. 


56  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

property,  and  opposite  to  death  ;  since  it  preserves 
part,  and  will  not  suffer  that  which  is  mortal  wholly 
to  be  destroyed.  But  as  the  soul,  which  is  our  diviner 
part,  connects  the  limbs  of  animals,  and  keeps  the 
composure  from  dissolution  ;  thus  salt  applied  to  dead 
bodies,  and  imitating  the  work  of  the  soul,  stops  those 
parts  that  were  falling  to  corruption,  binds  and  con- 
fines them,  and  so  makes  them  keep  their  union  and 
agreement  with  one  another."  1 

Philinus  goes  a  step  farther  when  he  asks  :  "  Do 
you  not  think  that  that  which  is  generative  is  to  be 
esteemed  divine,  seeing  God  is  the  principle  of  all 
things  ?  "  2  And  Plutarch  adds  suggestively  that  salt 
is  by  some  supposed  to  be  a  means  of  life,  not  only 
exciting  desire  for  generation,  but  actually  causing 
procreation ;  "  the  females  (among  the  lower  animals), 
as  some  imagine,  conceiving  without  the  help  of  the 
males,  only  by  licking  salt.  But  [as  he  thinks]  it  is 
most  probable  that  the  salt  raiseth  an  itching  in 
animals,  and  so  makes  them  salacious  and  eager  to 
couple.  And  perhaps  for  the  same  reason  they  call 
a  surprising  and  bewitching  beauty,  such  as  is  apt  to 
move  and  entice,  halmuron  kai  driiim,  'saltish.' 
And  I  think  the  poets  had  a  respect  to   this   genera- 

1  Plutarch's  Symposiacs,  Book  V.,  Quest.  X.,  g§  i,  2.  2  Ibid. 


SALT  AS  LIFE  IN   THE    TALMUD  S7 

tive  power  of  salt  in  their  fable  of  Venus  springing 
from  the  sea."  1 

In  Central  and  South  America  it  was  deemed  neces- 
sary to  abstain  from  salt  while  praying  and  sacrificing, 
with  a  desire  to  obtain  children.  So  far  it  was  among 
the  Maya  nations  of  the  New  World  as  among  the 
priests  of  Ancient  Egypt.2 

An  Oriental  proverb  says  :  "  If  thou  takest  the  salt 
[the  life,  or  soul]  from  the  flesh  [the  body]  then  thou 
mayest  throw  it  [the  flesh]  to  the  dogs."  This  has 
been  explained  by  the  rabbis,  as  considering  "salt" 
here  synonymous  with  the  soul,  or  life,  of  man,  which 
comes  from  God,  in  distinction  from  man's  body, 
which  comes  from  his  parents.  "  God  gives  the  spirit 
[the  breath],  the  soul,  the  features,  the  hearing,  the 
organs  of  speech,  the  gait,  the  perceptions,  the  reason, 
and  the  intuition.  When  now  the  time  comes  for 
man  to  depart  out  of  the  world,  God  takes  his  part, 
and  the  part  which  comes  from  the  parents  [the 
body]  he  lays  before  them."  3 

When  Elisha,  the  prophet  of  Israel,  was  met  by 
the  men  of  Jericho,  as  he  came  from  the  scene  of 
Elijah's  translation  to  enter  upon  his  mission  as   the 

1  Plutarch's  Symposiacs,  Book  V.,  Quest.  X.,  §§  i,  2. 

2  See  Bancroft's  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  II.,  678. 

3  Niddah  31  a,  quoted  by  Rev.  Dr.  Marcus  Jastrow  in  The  Sunday  School 
Times  for  April  28,  1894. 


58  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

successor  of  Elijah  and  was  told  of  the  death-deal- 
ing power  of  the  waters  of  the  city,  his  words  and 
action  seemed  to  emphasize  the  correspondence  of  salt 
with  life.  "  He  said,  Bring  me  a  new  cruse,  and  put 
salt  therein.  And  they  brought  it  to  him.  And  he 
went  forth  unto  the  spring  of  the  waters,  and  cast  salt 
therein,  and  said,  Thus  saith  the  Lord,  I  have  healed 
these  waters ;  there  shall  not  be  from  thence  any  more 
death  or  miscarrying  [of  the  land].  So  the  waters 
were  healed  [were  restored  to  life]  unto  this  day,  ac- 
cording to  the  word  of  Elisha  which  he  spake."  l 

A  spring  of  water  is  in  itself  so  important  to  a 
primitive  people  that  it  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that 
water  is  called  the  Gift  of  God,  and  that  a  living 
spring  is  looked  at  as  in  a  sense  divine,  and  that  it 
has  even  been  worshiped  as  a  god  among  primitive 
peoples.2  When,  therefore,  salt,  as  the  synonym  of 
life  or  of  blood,  is  found  in  a  spring  of  living  water,  it 
is  natural  to  recognize  the  spot  as  peculiarly  favored 
of  God,  or  of  the  gods.  Thus  "among  inland  peoples 
a  salt  spring  was  regarded  as  a  special  gift  of  the  gods. 
The  Chaonians  in  Epirus  had  one  which  flowed  into  a 
stream  where  there  were  [as  in  the  Dead  Sea]  no  fish ; 
and  the  legend  was  that  Heracles  had  allowed  their 

1  2  Kings  2  :  19-22. 
2  See  Kadesh-barnea,  p.   36,  and  note,  298  f. ;  and  Studies  in  Oriental 
Social  Life,  pp.  213,  404  f. 


MORE  LIFE  TO  A   BABE  59 

forefathers  to  have  salt  instead  of  fish  {Aristotle).  The 
Germans  waged  war  for  saline  streams,  and  believed 
that  the  presence  of  salt  invested  a  district  with  pecu- 
liar sanctity,  and  made  it  a  place  where  prayers  were 
most  readily  heard  (Tacitus,  Ann.,  XIII. ,  57)."  l 

There  is  said  to  be  a  salt  lake  in  the  mountain 
region  of  Koordistan,  which  was  changed  from  fresh 
water  to  salt,  by  St.  Peter,  when  he  first  came  thither 
preaching  Christianity.  He  wrought  this  change  so 
that  he  could  influence  the  people  to  accept  his  teach- 
ing through  sharing  his  life  by  partaking  of  the  salt.  To 
this  day  the  tradition  remains,  that,  if  the  natives  will 
bathe  in  that  lake,  they  will  renew  their  faith.  Aside 
from  the  question  of  any  basis  of  truth  in  the  legend, 
it  remains  as  a  survival  of  the  primitive  idea  of  a  real 
connection  of  shared  salt  with  shared  life. 

It  is  customary  among  some  primitive  peoples  to 
anoint  or  smear  a  new-born  babe  with  blood,  as  a 
means  of  giving  him  more  and  fuller  life.2  Thus 
among  the  ancient  Caribs,  of  South  America,  "  as 
soon  as  a  male  child  was  brought  into  the  world,  he 
was  sprinkled  with  some  drops  of  his  father's  blood;" 
the  father  "  fondly  believing  that  the  same  degree  of 
courage  which  he  had  himself  displayed,  was  by  these 

1  W.  Robertson  Smith  in  art.  "  Salt  "  in  Encyc.  Brit.,  9th  ed. 
2  Blood  Covenant,  p.  137  f. 


6o  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

means  transmitted  to  his  son."  ]  In  one  of  the  Kaffir 
tribes  of  South  Africa,  when  a  new  chief  assumes 
authority,  it  was  customary  to  wash  him  in  the  blood 
of  a  near  relative,  generally  a  brother,  who  was  put 
to  death  on  the  occasion.  In  order  to  give  more  life 
and  character  to  the  freshly  elevated  representative  of 
the  ruling  family,  the  family  life  was  drawn  from  the 
veins  of  one  near  him,  in  order  that  it  might  be  ab- 
sorbed by  him  who  could  use  it  more  imposingly.2 

The  Bheels  are  a  brave  and  warlike  race  of  moun- 
taineers of  Hindostan.  They  claim  to  have  been, 
formerly,  the  rulers  of  all  their  region,  but  either  by 
defeat  in  war  or  by  voluntary  concession  to  have 
yielded  their  power  to  other  peoples,  whom  they  now 
authorize  to  rule  in  their  old  domain.  When,  there- 
fore, a  new  rajput,  or  chief  ruler,  comes  into  power  in 
any  of  the  surrounding  countries,  this  right  to  rule  is 
conceded,  or  ratified,  by  an  anointing  of  blood  drawn 
from  the  toe  or  thumb  of  a  Bheel.  The  right  of  giv- 
ing this  blood,  or  new  life,  is  claimed  by  particular 
Bheel  families  ;  and  the  belief  that  the  individual  from 
whose  veins  the  blood  is  drawn  never  lives  beyond 
a  twelvemonth,  in  no  degree  operates  to  repress  the 
desire  of  the  Bheels  to  furnish  the  blood  of  anointing.3 

1  Edwards's  Hist,  of  Brit.   West  Ind.,  I.  47,  referred  to  in  Blood  Cove- 
nant, p.  137  f.  2  Shooter's  Kafirs  of  Natal,  p.  216,  ibid. 
3  Trans.  Royal  Asiat.  Soc,  I.,  69,  ibid. 


SALT  A  T  BIRTH  AND  A  T  DBA  TH  6l 

Salt  is  similarly  used  to-day,  in  the  East  and  else- 
where.1 A  new-born  child  is  at  once  washed  and 
salted.  If  an  Oriental  seems  lacking  in  life  or  wisdom, 
oris,  as  we  would  say,  exceptionally  "fresh,"  it  is  said 
of  him,  "  He  wasn't  salted  when  he  was  born."  This 
idea  would  seem  to  be  included  in  the  prophet's  re- 
proach of  Jerusalem  :  "  Neither  wast  thou  washed  in 
water  to  cleanse  thee  ;  thou  wast  not  salted  at  all, 
nor  swaddled  at  all."  2 

As  at  birth,  so  at  death,  salt  seems  to  stand  in 
primitive  thought  for  blood,  or  life,  in  washing  or 
anointing,  in  the  hope  of  supplying  the  special  lack  or 
need  of  the  individual.  Among  the  cannibals  of 
Borneo,  on  the  death  of  a  rajah  or  chief,  the  desire 
seems  to  be  to  restore  him  to  life  if  it  be  possible. 
His  body  is  rubbed  or  bathed  with  salt.  He  is  then 
dressed  in  his  best  apparel,  and  placed  in  a  sitting 
posture.  In  his  hands  are  placed  his  shield  and  man- 
dau.  If  this  application  of  new  life  and  this  special 
appeal  to  action  fail  to  arouse  him,  he  is  counted  as 
hopelessly  dead;  the  arms  are  taken  from  him,  the 
body  is  undressed,  and  wrapped  in  a  piece  of  cloth, 
and  placed  in  the  ground.3 

A  traveler  in  Asia   Minor  speaks  of  the   practice 

1  Van  Lennep's  Bible  Lands,  p.  569.  a  Ezek.  16  :  4. 

3  Carl  Bock's  Head  Hunters  of  Borneo,  p.  224. 


62  THE  COVENANT   OF  SALT 

among  the  Toorkomans  of  the  mother's  dipping  a 
child  two  or  three  times  into  a  skin  of  .salt  water,  at 
the  time  of  his  naming.  This  would  seem  to  be  a 
primitive  rite,  and  not  a  Christian  one.  The  father 
of  the  child  meanwhile  eats  honeyed  cake,  and  drinks 
thickened  milk.1 

Milk  is  sometimes  accepted  by  the  Arabs  as  a  sub- 
stitute for  salt,  as  the  essential  factor  in  the  covenant 
of  salt  (the  milhd)}  Milk  is  nature's  life  food,  it 
stands  for  liquid  life;  two  "  milk  brothers  "  are  some- 
what as  blood  brothers,  brothers  by  a  common  life.3 
"There  seem  to  be  indications,"  says  W.  Robertson 
Smith,4  "  that  many  primitive  peoples  regard  milk  as 
a  kind  of  equivalent  for  blood  as  containing  a  sacred 
life.  Thus  to  eat  a  kid  seethed  in  its  mother's  milk 
might  be  taken  as  an  equivalent  to  eating  '  with  the 
blood,'  and  be  forbidden  to  the  Hebrews5  along  with 
the  bloody  sacraments  of  the  heathen." 

Milk  has  been  employed  instead  of  blood,  and 
again  of  salt,  for  transfusion  in  case  of  declining  life 
from  hemorrhage.6      This  would  seem  to  justify  the 

1  W.  Eassie,  in  Notes  and  Queries,  3d  series,  II.,  318. 
*  See   references,  in  W.    Robertson   Smith's   Religion   of  the   Semites 
(p.  252,  note),  to  Burckhardt  and  to  Kamil. 

3  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  10,  11. 
4  Relig.  of  the  Sent.,  p.  204,  note  ;  also  Kinship  and  Marriage  in  Early 
Arabia,  pp.  149,  150.  5  Exod.  23  :  19;  34  :  26;  Deut.  14  :  21. 

6  Quain's  Diet,  of  Medicine,  art.  "Transfusion  of  Milk." 


SALT  BRINGING  LIFE  TO  FLIES  63 

belief  that  milk  and  blood  alike  represent  life  in 
popular  thought. 

A  favorite  experiment  among  young  folks  is  to 
bring  life  to  dead  flies  by  covering  them  with  salt. 
When  flies  are  drowned  purposely,  or  by  accident,  if 
one  is  taken  from  the  water  apparently  dead,  and  laid 
on  the  table,  or  on  a  plate,  and  covered  with  common 
salt,  in  a  few  seconds  the  fly  will  creep  out  from  under 
the  salt,  and  soon  fly  away  as  if  unharmed.  Other 
flies  in  the  same  condition,  not  treated  with  salt,  re- 
main as  dead.  This  has  been  tried  by  succeeding 
generations  of  young  folks,  and  it  is  one  of  the  folk- 
lore facts  in  support  of  the  idea  that  salt  is  life. 

It  may,  of  course,  be  that  the  absorbent  power  of 
salt  clears  the  trachea  of  the  fly,  and  thus  permits  the 
restoration  of  the  natural  breathing.  Of  course,  there 
is  some  explanation  of  the  phenomenon  ;  but  the  fact 
remains  that  the  common  mind  has  been  affected  by 
such  things  in  the  direction  of  the  belief  that  salt  is 
life  in  a  peculiar  sense. 

After  the  foregoing  pages  were  already  in  type, 
it  was  cabled  as  news  from  London  that  an  English 
mechanic  claimed  to  have  discovered  a  method  of  re- 
suscitating persons  who  have  been  drowned.  He  pro- 
posed to  cover  the  entire  body  of  the  person  taken 
from  the  water  with  dry  salt,  which   is  supposed  to 


64  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

absorb  the  moisture,  and  thus  draw  the  water  from  the 
lungs  and  permit  the  air  again  to  circulate  freely.  He 
claimed  to  have  revived  a  recently  drowned  cat,  after 
letting  it  remain  under  salt  for  thirty  minutes;  and 
that  a  drowned  dog  was  thus  restored  in  two  hours. 

This  is  simply  the  folk-lore  idea  of  bringing  the 
dead  to  life  by  the  application  of  salt  as  life.  Like 
many  another  folk-lore  idea,  it  is  deserving  of  atten- 
tion because  of  some  possible  basis  of  truth  below  the 
idea,  apart  from  the  question  of  fact  in  connection 
with  the  claim. 

In  "The  Barber's  Story  of  his  Fifth  Brother,"  in 
"The  Arabian  Nights,"  is  an  account  of  the  hero's 
being  beaten  and  slashed  until  he  was  supposed  to  be 
dead  from  loss  of  blood,  and  his  other  injuries.  Then 
a  slave-girl,  named  El-Meleehah,  the  "salt-bearer," 
came  and  stuffed  salt  into  his  gaping  wounds,  after 
which  his  supposed  corpse  was  thrown  into  a  subter- 
ranean vault  among  the  dead.  Yet  by  means  of  this 
application  of  salt  he  was  saved  to  life,  and  regained 
his  pristine  vigor.1 

The  references  of  Jesus  to  salt  would  seem  to  have 
fuller  meaning,  if  "salt  "  be  understood  as  equivalent 
to  "  life."  Where  he  says  to  his  disciples  :  "Ye  are 
the  salt  of  the  earth  :  but  if  the  salt  have  lost  its  savor, 

1  Lane's  Thousand  and  One  Nights,  I,  365. 


SALTED    WITH  FIRE  65 

wherewith  shall  it  be  salted  ?  it  is  thenceforth  good 
for  nothing,  but  to  be  cast  out  and  trodden  under  foot 
of  men,"  l  he  would  seem  to  remind  them  that  they 
are  the  life  of  the  world,  if,  indeed,  they  retain  life  in 
themselves.  And  where  he  says,  "Have  salt  in  your- 
selves, and  be  at  peace  one  with  another,"  2  he  would 
call  them  to  have  life  in  themselves,  and  to  join 
with  others  who  have  it,  in  making  their  life  to  be 
felt  among  their  fellows. 

A  supposed  utterance  of  Jesus,  which  has  been  a 
puzzle  to  critics  and  commentators,  possibly  has  light 
thrown  on  it  in  this  view  of  salt  as  corresponding  with 
life.  Discoursing  on  life,  and  the  wisdom  of  striving 
tp  attain  or  to  enter  into  life,  even  at  a  loss  of  much 
that  man  might  value  here  on  earth,  Jesus,  according 
to  some  manuscripts,  said,  "For  every  one  shall  be 
salted  with  fire."3  This  sentence  is  disputed  by  some, 
not  being  found  in  all  the  more  ancient  MSS.,  and  its 
meaning  does  not  seem  to  be  clear  to  any.4  It  is  ob- 
vious that  whatever  else  "salted"  here  means,  it  does 
not  mean  "salted."  To  salt  is  to  mingle,  or  to  accom- 
pany, with  salt.  Clearly,  fire  does  not  do  that.  The 
Greek  is  as  vague,  or  as  ambiguous,  as  the  English. 

1  Matt.  5  :  13  ;  Luke  14  :  34.  2  Mark  9  =  5°- 

3  Mark  9  :  49.     Comp.  A.  V.  and  R.  V. 
4  See  notes    and    references    in    Nicoll's  Expositors'  Greek  Testament ; 
Lange's  Commentary  ;  Meyer's  Commentary,  in  loco,  etc. 


66  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

There  must  be  a  conventional  or  popular,  a  figurative 
or  symbolical,  meaning  in  which  "  salt  "  is  here  used. 
What  can  this  be  ? 

"  Fire "  is  here  spoken  of  as  the  synonym,  or 
equivalent,  or  parallel,  of  "salt."  In  this  figure,  fire 
is  to  accomplish  what  salt  performs  ;  the  work  of  salt 
is  to  be  done  by  fire.  In  what  sense  can  this  be  true? 
Fire  does  consume  and  destroy  the  perishable  ;l  it 
does  bring  out  and  refine  that  which  is  permanent  and 
precious;2  it  does  try  and  test  and  reveal  the  measure 
of  real  value  in  that  which  is  submitted  to  it.3  In  the 
testing  time,  "  each  man's  work  shall  be  made  mani- 
fest :  for  the  day  shall  declare  it,  because  it  is  revealed 
in  fire  ;  and  the  fire  itself  shallop  rove  each  man's  work, 
of  what  sort  it  is.  If  any  man's  work  shall  abide 
which  he  built  thereon  [on  the  one  Foundation],  he 
shall  receive  a  reward.  If  any  man's  work  shall  be 
burned  he  shall  suffer  loss  :  but  he  himself  [who  has 
builded]  shall  be  saved  ;   yet  as  through  fire."  4 

The  whole  context  of  the  passage  in  Mark's  Gospel 
indicates  that  Jesus  is  speaking  of  life.  He  is  show- 
ing the  way  to  attain  to  life.  He  points  to  the  final 
testing  of  life  by  fire.  As  salt  is  shown  to  correspond 
with  life,  and  as  this  seems  to  have  been  understood 

1  Gen.  19  :  24,  25 ;  Exod.  9  :  23,  24 ;  Lev.  10  :  2 ;  13  :  52-57  ;  Matt.  3  : 
12 ;  7  :  19  ;  Luke  3  :  17 ;  John  15  :  6. 

2  Mai.  3  :  2,  3.  3  1  Pet.  1:7.  4  1  Cor.  3  :  13-15. 


SEASONED   WITH  LIFE  6? 

by  his  hearers,  would  they  not  have  seen  that  Jesus 
was  pointing  out  that  the  measure  of  life,  or  salt,  the 
reminder  of  God's  covenant  with  his  people,  in  every 
one  of  them,  would  be  revealed  in  the  testing  of  fire  ? 

It  is,  indeed,  because  salt  represents  life,  that  salt 
was  to  accompany  every  sacrifice  under  the  Jewish 
dispensation.  Not  death,  but  life,  was  an  acceptable 
offering  to  God,  according  to  the  teachings  of  the 
Bible,  both  in  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New.1 
God  wants  "not  yours,  but  you."2  This  was  em- 
phasized by  priest  and  prophet  in  the  history  of  the 
Jewish  people,  earlier  and  later.  Paul  re-echoed  this 
primal  thought  when  he  appealed  to  Christians  :  "  I 
beseech  you  therefore,  brethren,  by  the  mercies  of 
God,  to  present  your  bodies  [yourselves]  a  living  sac- 
rifice, holy,  acceptable  to  God,  which  is  your  reason- 
able service."  3  Without  salt,  without  the  symbol  of 
life,  no  sacrifice  was  to  be  counted  a  fitting  or  accept- 
able offering  at  God's  altar. 

Salt  is  taken,  in  the  world's  thought,  as  an  equiva- 
lent of  wit,  or  lively  wisdom,  in  speech.  Thus  Paul 
counsels  the  Colossian  Christians  :  "  Let  your  speech 
be  always  with  grace,  seasoned  with  salt,  that  ye  may 
know  how  ye  ought  to  answer  each  one."  4     Because 

1  See  Blood  Covenant,  passim. 
2  2  Cor.  12  :  14.  s  Rom.  12  :  1.  *  Col.  4  :  6. 


68  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

the  Athenians  were  noted  for  their  life  and  wit  in 
speech,  "Attic  salt"  was  a  synonym  of  truest  life  in 
conversation.  Cicero  says  of  Scipio  :  "  Scipio  omncs 
sale  sjiperbat"  ("Scipio  surpassed  all  in  salt,"  or 
"wit"). 

Pliny  after  describing  the  properties  and  uses  of 
salt,  says :  "  We  may  conclude  then,  by  Hercules  ! 
that  the  higher  enjoyments  of  life  could  not  exist 
without  the  use  of  salt :  indeed,  so  highly  necessary 
is  this  substance  to  mankind,  that  the  pleasures  of  the 
mind,  even,  can  be  expressed  by  no  better  term  than 
the  word  'salt,'  such  being  the  name  given  to  all 
effusions  of  wit  All  the  amenities,  in  fact,  of  life, 
supreme  liberty,  and  relaxation  from  toil  [in  a  word, 
'life,']  can  find  no  word  in  our  language  to  character- 
ize them  better  than  this."  * 

Pliny  also  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  "salarium," 
from  which  we  derive  our  word  "salary,"  was  the 
"salt  money,"  bestowed  as  a  reward  or  honorarium 
on  successful  generals  and  military  tribunes.2  The 
idea  of  a  "living,"  or  a  support  of  life,  is  in  the  word 
"salary."  And  so  when  we  say  that  a  man  is  "not 
worth  his  salt,"  we  mean  that  he  is  not  worth  his 
living. 

Salt  has  been  employed  as  money  at  various  times 

1  Hist  Nat.,  XXXI.,  41.  2  Ibid. 


SALT  AS  COIN  69 

and  in  various  lands,  and  thus  has  been  the  means  of 
supporting  life.  It  has  been  so  in  Tibet  and  in  India, 
and  in  the  heart  of  Africa  along  from  the  sixth  to  the 
nineteenth  centuries  of  our  era.  Thus  even  in  lands 
where  gold  is  abundant  but  less  valued  than  salt.1 

It  is  said  of  the  people  of  a  province  in  Tibet,  that, 
while  they  reckon  the  value  of  gold  by  weight,  the 
nearest  approach  to  coined  money  which  they  have  is 
in  molded  and  stamped  cakes  of  salt.  "  On  this 
money  .  .  .  the  Prince's  mark  is  printed  ;  and  no  one 
is  allowed  to  make  it  except  the  royal  officers.  .  .  . 
Merchants  take  this  currency  and  go  to  those  tribes 
that  dwell  among  the  mountains ;  .  .  .  and  there  they 
get  a  saggio  of  gold  for  sixty,  or  fifty,  or  forty  pieces 
of  this  salt  money ;  ...  for  in  such  positions  they  can- 
not dispose  at  pleasure  of  their  gold  and  other  things, 
such  as  musk  and  the  like ;  .  .  .  and  so  they  give  them 
cheap."  "This  exchange  of  salt-cakes  for  gold,  forms 
a  curious  parallel  to  the  like  exchange  in  the  heart  of 
Africa,  narrated  by  Cosmas  in  the  sixth  century,  and 
by  Aloisio  Cadamosto  in  the  fifteenth."  2 

Victor  Hehn  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  "  the 
German  copper- coin  heller  (haller  or  haller),  the 
smallest   coin    still   in  use  in  Austria,   referred   to  in 

1  Marco  Polo's  Travels,  Col.  Yule's  translation,  II.,  29,  35,  36,  37,  and 
notes  to  Chap.  47.  2  Ibid. 


yo  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

the  German  saying,  'to  have  not  a  red  heller,'  de- 
rives its  name  from  the  salt  (/W),  and  the  place  where 
it  was  obtained."  l 

Pythagoras,  speaking  as  usual  in  figurative  terms, 
described  salt  as  a  preserver  of  all  things,  as  continu- 
ing life  and  as  staying  corruption,  or  death.  He 
directed  the  keeping  of  a  vessel  of  salt  on  every  table, 
as  a  reminder  of  its  essential  qualities.2 

Pliny  says,  moreover,  that  there  are  mountains  of 
salt  in  different  countries  in  India,  from  which  great 
blocks  are  cut  as  from  a  quarry ;  and  that  from  this 
source  a  larger  revenue  is  secured  by  the  rulers  than 
from  all  their  gold  and  pearls.3 

In  many  countries  of  the  world  salt  is  a  matter  of 
government  control,  its  manufacture  and  disposition 
being  guarded  as  if  life  and  death  were  involved  in  it. 
It  is  a  common  saying  in  Italy  that  a  man  must  not 
dip  up  a  bucket  of  water  from  the  Mediterranean  Sea ; 
for  he  might  make  salt  from  the  water,  and  so  defraud 
the  government. 

1  Victor  Hehn's  Das  Salz,  p.  72. 

2  See  Dacier's  Life  of  Pythagoras  (Eng.  trans.),  pp.  6o,  105. 

3  Hist.  Nat.,  XXXI.,  39. 


VII 

SALT   AND   SUN,   LIFE   AND    LIGHT 


VII 
SALT  AND  SUN,  LIFE  AND  LIGHT 

In  Oriental  and  primitive  thought  Salt  and  Sun  are 
closely  connected,  even  if  they  are  not  considered  as 
identical.  They  stand  together  as  Life  and  Light. 
Their  mention  side  by  side  in  various  places  tends  to 
confirm  this  view  of  their  remarkable  correspondence. 
The  similarity  of  their  forms  accords  with  the  Oriental 
delight  in  a  play  upon  words,  even  apart  from  the 
question  of  any  similarity  in  their  meanings. 

Pliny,  who,  while  not  an  original  thinker,  was  a 
faithful  and  industrious  collater  of  the  sayings  and 
doings  of  his  contemporaries,  and  those  who  had  gone 
before  him,  especially  in  the  realm  of  material  things, 
summed  up  the  popular  beliefs  as  to  salt  and  its  uses 
in  the  declaration  that  there  is  nothing  better  for  the 
human  body,  in  health  or  in  sickness,  than  salt  and 
sun,  "sale  et  sole."  l 

Not  only  in  the  English  and  the  Latin,  but  in  the 
Greek,  the  Kymric,  and   the  Keltic,  this   similarity  in 

i  Hist.  Nat.,  XXXI.,  45, 

73 


74  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

the  form  of  the  words  for  salt  and  sun  is  to  be  ob- 
served. The  Greek  lials  and  helios,  the  Welsh  hal 
and  haul,  the  Irish  sal  and  sul,  illustrate  this  so  far 
as  the  form  is  concerned.1  As  to  the  signification  of 
the  words,  it  has  already  been  shown  that  "salt" 
represents  "  life "  in  primitive  thought  and  speech. 
Similarly  the  sun  was  considered  "as  the  life-giver, 
the  emblem  of  procreation."  In  consequence,  "  son  " 
and  "sun"  are  from  the  same  root.2  In  view  of  this 
it  is  not  strange  that  salt  and  sun,  as  life  and  light,  were 
considered  in  primitive  and  popular  thought  as  the 
means  of  health  and  hope  for  mankind. 

"The  root  of  the  word  for  salt  is  unknown.  The 
name  of  the  sun  is  apparently  a  derivation  from  the 
root  su  (or  sav)  I.  To  generate.  2.  To  impel,  to  set  in 
motion,  to  bring  about."  3  If  the  same  be  not  the  root 
of  the  word  "  salt,"  there  is  at  least  reason  for  thinking 
that  the  meaning  of  the  two  words  "  salt "  and  "  sun  " 
are  similar, — one  gives  life,  the  other  represents  life. 

To  the  primitive  mind  it  certainly  would  seem 
natural  to  ascribe  the  creation  of  salt  to  the  action  or 

1  In  the  Old  Irish  and  the  Old  Welsh  s  and  h  interchange,  as  they  do 
in  the  Zend.  See  Table  of  Grimm,  in  Sayce's  Introduction  to  the  Science 
of  Language,  I.,  305. 

2  Skeat's  Etymological  Dictionary,  at  words  "Salt,"  "Son,"'  "Solar,'' 
"Sun;  "  also  Kluge's  Etymological  Dictionary,  s.  v.  "Sonne." 

3  According  to  Prof.  Dr.  Hermann  Collitz,  of  Bryn  Mawr.  Compare 
Joh.  Schmidt  in  Kuhn's  "  Zeitschrift,"  XXVI.,  9;  and  O.  Schrader,  Pre- 
historic Antiquities  0/  the  Aryan  Peoples,  p.  414.    Trans,  by  F.  B.  Jevons. 


SALT  AND  LIGHT  75 

power  of  the  sun.  Peculiarly  would  this  be  the  case 
with  dwellers  by  the  ocean  or  sea,  or  inland  salt  lakes. 
As  the  sun  shines  upon  the  water  drawn  from  the  sea 
or  lake,  the  water  is  evaporated  and  the  salt  remains. 
This  is  the  ordinary  process  of  salt-making  with  all  its 
benefits  in  various  countries  to  the  present  day.  What 
thought  is  more  natural,  in  view  of  this  recognized 
fact,  than  that  the  sun  is  the  generator,  or  the  beget- 
ter, of  salt  which  is  life  ?  If  the  sun  is  supposed  to 
bring  life,  in  what  way  does  it  more  directly  accom- 
plish this  than  by  this  salt  creation  ? 

This  would  seem  to  give  added  significance  and 
force  to  the  words  of  Jesus  as  to  salt  and  light.  If 
in  the  days  of  Jesus  it  was  held,  as  Pliny  says,  that  there 
was  nothing  that  could  help  the  life  of  humanity  like 
salt  and  sun,  life  and  light,  the  disciples  of  Jesus 
must  have  recognized  a  peculiar  meaning  in  the  teach- 
ings of  the  Great  Physician  as  he  sent  them  out  into 
the  world  to  heal  the  sick,  and  raise  the  dead,  and 
cleanse  the  lepers,  and  cast  out  demons,1  when  he 
suggested  that  it  was  what  they  were,  rather  than  what 
they  did,  that  was  to  be  the  help  of  humanity.  In 
the  same  teaching  he  said,  "Ye  are  the  salt  of  the 
earth,"  "Ye  are  the  light  of  the  world."  2 

The  recognized  meaning  of  these  words  in  the  days 

1  Matt.  10  :  8.  2  Matt.  5  :  13,  14. 


;6  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

of  Jesus  intensified  their  importance  at  every  use  of 
them,  as  when  it  was  said  that  ''in  Him  was  life;  and 
the  life  was  the  light  of  men."1  Salt  was  blood; 
blood  was  life ;  salt  was  life ;  life  was  light ;  blood  and 
salt  and  light  were  life. 

Among  folk-lore  customs  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean, 
salt  and  a  candle  are  carried  across  the  threshold  on 
moving  to  a  new  house,  as  if  representing  life  and 
light  as  needs  in  a  new  home.  Sometimes  the  Bible 
also  is  included,  as  if  in  recognition  of  the  true  basis 
of  all  sacred  covenanting.  There  are  other  folk-lore 
customs  connecting  salt  and  light.2 

According  to  Professor  Dr.  Hilprecht,  in  the  old 
Assyrian  language,  tdbtu,  "salt,"  and  tabtuy  "bless- 
ing," have  the  same  ideogram,  and  are  written  exactly 
alike.  "  This  suggests  the  inquiry  whether  they  are 
not  derived  from  the  same  root,  tabu,  'to  be  good,' 
and  whether  ldbt?i,  'salt,'  was  not  so  called  by  the 
Assyrians  as  the  great  blessing  given  to  man,  as 
needed  more  than  aught  else  for  the  preparation  of 
food  and  the  preservation  of  life." 

1  John  1:4.  2  See  Chap.  X.,  infra. 


•      VIII 
SIGNIFICANCE  OF  BREAD 


VIII 
SIGNIFICANCE  OF  BREAD 

Bread  is  the  basis  of  a  common  meal,  as  blood  is 
the  basis  of  a  common  life.  As,  in  the  sacrifices,  the 
body  of  the  animal  offered  in  sacrifice  was  the  basis 
of  a  covenant  meal,  while  the  blood  was  the  basis  of 
union  with  the  divine ;  so  in  the  symbolism  of  bread 
and  wine,  in  any  sacramental  meal,  or  in  any  meal  of 
sacred  covenanting  between  two  persons,  the  bread 
stood  for  the  flesh,  and  the  wine  for  the  blood.  So, 
also,  when  bread  and  salt  are  used  together,  the  salt 
would  seem  to  stand  for  blood  or  life,  and  the  bread 
to  stand  for  the  flesh  or  the  body.1 

Blood  gives  life;  flesh  as  food  gives  sustenance. 
Salt  represents  life ;  bread  represents  sustaining  food. 
In  this  light  those  who  share  salt  together  are  in  a  life- 
sharing  covenant ;  those  who  share  bread  together  are 
sharers   in   a   common   growth.      Covenant   union   in 

1  See  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  182-190;  268  f.;  35°-355- 

79 


So  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

sacrifice  is  secured  or  consummated  by  blood-sharing ; 
it  is  evidenced  or  celebrated  by  food-sharing. 

'•  Milk  and  honey"  seem  to  be  a  symbol  of  blood 
and  flesh,  or  of  salt  and  bread,  from  a  divine  source. 
They  are  supplied  to  man  from  the  vegetable  world, 
through  the  agency  of  living  animals,  by  the  power  of 
the  Author  of  life.  They  stand  for  the  vivifying  and 
nourishing  of  the  body  by  a  providential  ministry  to 
man.  In  this  light  they  seem  to  be  viewed  by  primi- 
tive peoples.  The  Land  of  Promise  was  represented 
to  the  ancient  Hebrews  as  "  a  land  flowing  with  milk 
and  honey,"  '  and  this  figure  seemed  to  represent  to 
them  all  that  could  be  desired  in  the  line  of  God's 
ministry  to  their  material  needs.  It  was  many  times 
repeated  to  them,  or  by  them,  in  this  sense.  2 

This  symbolism  was  preserved  by  the  early  Chris- 
tians in  connection  with  the  rite  of  baptism.  Tertul- 
lian  describing  that  rite  says :  "  Having  come  out 
from  the  bath,  we  are  anointed  with  a  blessed  unc- 
tion of  holy  oil;  "  afterwards  "we  first  taste  a  mixture 
of  honey  and  milk."  s 

1  Exod.  3  :  8,  17;  13:5:  33  :  3- 

2  Lev.  20  :  24;  Num.  13  :  27  ;  14  :  8 ;  16:  13,  14;  Deut.  6:3;  11  :  9 ; 
26  '•  9,  IS  ;  27  :  3 ;  31  :  20 ;  Josh.  5:6;  Jer.  11 :  5  ;  32  :  22 ;  Ezek.  20 : 
6,15. 

3  Tertullian.  De  Coron.,  v.  3,  adv.  Prox.  XXVI.,  de  Bapt.  vii.  and  viii., 
cited  in  Blunt's  Annotated  Book  of  Common  Prayer,  p.  209. 


IX 

SALT    IN    SACRIFICES 


IX 

SALT  IN  SACRIFICES 

Salt  seems  to  have  been  recognized  as  a  vital  ele- 
ment in  sacrifices  both  in  the  teachings  of  the  Bible 
and  in  the  customs  of  the  pagan  world.  In  the  Lord's 
injunction  to  Israel,  it  is  said  unqualifiedly  :  "  And 
every  oblation  of  thy  meal  offering  shalt  thou  sea- 
son with  salt ;  neither  shalt  thou  suffer  the  salt  of  the 
covenant  of  thy  God  to  be  lacking  trom  thy  meal 
offering  :  with  ail  thine  oblations  [offerings  bloody 
or  unbloody]  thou  shalt  offer  salt."  ! 

An  alternative  reading  of  the  words  of  Jesus  in 
Mark's  Gospel  refers  to  this  custom  when  it  says  that 
"  every  sacrifice  shall  be  salted  with  salt." 2  Josephus, 
in  his  "Antiquities  of  the  Jews,"  makes  reference  to  the 
large  quantities  of  salt  required  for  sacrifices.3  This 
corresponds  with  the  provision  of  the  King  of  Persia 
for  Jewish  sacrifices,  "salt  without  prescribing  how 
much,"4 — a  limitless  or  indefinite  amount. 

1  Lev.  2  :  13.     See  also  Ezek.  43  :  21-24. 
a  Mark  9  :  49.     These  words  are  by  some  critics  counted  a  gloss ;  yet 
the  fact  as  a  fact,  with  reference  to  salt  in  sacrifices,  is  undisputed. 
3  Antiquities  of  the  Jews,  XII,  hi,  3.  Ezra  7  :  21,  22. 

83 


84  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

In  the  Hebrew  text  which  the  Septuagint  transla- 
tors had  before  them,  salt  is  represented  as  always  on 
the  table  of  shewbread,  and  as  an  important  factor  in 
that  memorial  offering  before  the  Lord.  It  reads  : 
"And  ye  shall  put  upon  the  pile  [of  bread]  pure 
frankincense  and  salt,  and  they  shall  be  to  the  bread 
for  a  memorial  lying  before  the  Lord.  "  L  Philo 
Judaeus  makes  mention  of  this  salt  with  the  bread, 
on  the  sacred  table  in  the  Holy  Place,  and  refers  to 
the  salt  as  a  symbol  of  perpetuity.2 

In  the  directions  for  the  preparation  of  the  holy 
incense  for  use  by  the  priests  in  the  services  of  the 
tabernacle,  the  fragrant  gums  and  spices  were  to  be 
"seasoned  [or  tempered  together]  with  salt,  pure  and 
holy."  3     And  this  incense  was  for  sacrificial  offering. 

It  is  still  a  custom  among  strict  Jews  to  observe  the 
rite  of  the  covenant  of  salt  at  their  family  table,  before 
every  meal.  The  head  of  the  house,  having  invoked 
the  Divine  blessing  in  these  words,  "  Blessed  be  thou 
O  Lord  our  God,  King  of  the  universe,  who  causest 
bread  to  grow  out  of  the  earth,"  takes  bread  and 
breaks  it  in  as  many  pieces  as  there  are  persons  pres- 
ent. Having  dipped  each  piece  into  salt,  he  hands  a 
portion   in   turn  to   every  one,  and  they  share   it  to- 

1  Swete's  Septuagint  at  Lev.  24  :  7.  2  De  Victimis,  §  3. 

3  Exod.  30  :  34,  35,  Revised   Text,  and  marginal  note. 


THE    TABLE  AN  ALTAR  85 

♦ 

gether.  In  cases  where  there  is  less  strictness  of 
ritual  observance  on  the  part  of  modern  Jews,  this 
ceremony  is  limited  to  the  beginning  of  the  Sabbath, 
at  the  Friday  evening  meal. 

This  might  seem  to  be  merely  a  renewal  of  the 
covenant  which  binds  the  members  of  the  family  to 
one  another  and  to  God ;  yet  it  evidently  partakes  of 
the  nature  of  a  sacrifice,  and  it  is  so  understood  by 
the  more  orthodox  Jews.  The  primitive  idea  of  an 
altar  was  a  table  of  intercommunion  with  God,  or  with 
the  gods.  It  was  thus  with  the  Babylonians,  the 
Assyrians,  the  Egyptians,  the  Hindoos,  the  Persians, 
the  Arabs,  the  early  inhabitants  of  North  and  South 
America,  and  with  primitive  peoples  generally.1  Thus 
also  the  Bible  would  seem  to  count  an  altar  and  a 
table  as  synonymous.  The  prophet  Malachi  re- 
proaches, in  God's  name,  the  Jews  for  irreverence  and 
sacrilege.  "  And  ye  say,  Wherein  have  we  despised 
thy  name  ?  Ye  offer  polluted  bread  upon  mine  altar. 
And  ye  say,  Wherein  have  we  polluted  thee  ?  In  that 
ye  say,  The  table  of  the  Lord  is  contemptible."  2 

The  Talmud  emphasizes  the  home  table  of  the  Jew 
as  the  altar  before  the  Lord,  to  be  approached  in  sacri- 
fice with  the  essential  offering  of  salt.      "As  long  as 

1  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  167-190. 
2  Mai.  J  :  6,  7.     See  also  Isa.  65  :  11  and  Ezek.  41 :  22. 


$6  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

the  Temple  existed,  the  altar  effected  atonement,  and 
now  it  is  for  the  table  of  each  man  to  effect  atone- 
ment for  him.  It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  altar  (in  Ezekiel  41  :  22)  closes  by  saying, 
1  And  he  said  unto  me,  This  is  the  table  that  is  before 
the  Lord.'  "  l 

It  would  seem,  therefore,  that  bread  and  salt  are  as 
the  body  and  the  blood,  the  flesh  and  the  life,  offered 
in  sacrifice  at  the  home  table  of  the  Jew,  as  formerly 
at  the  altar  of  intercommunion  with  God.2 

This  view  of  the  household  table  as  an  altar  has 
been  recognized  by  many  Jews.      Picart3  says  : 

"The  German  Jew  sets  bread  and  salt  upon  his 
table,  but  the  loaf,  if  possible,  must  be  whole.  He 
cuts  it  without  making  a  separation,  takes  it  up  with 
both  his  hands,  sets  it  down  upon  the  table,  and 
blesses  it  His  guests  answer,  Amen.  Afterwards  he 
rubs  it  with  salt,  and  whilst  he  is  eating  it  is  as  silent 
as  a  Carthusian.  The  bread  thus  consecrated  is  dis- 
tributed to  all  who  are  at  table.  If  he  drinks  wine, 
he  blesses  it  as  he  did  the  bread  before  ;  takes  it  in 
his  right  hand,  lifts  it  up,  and  pronounces  the  benedic- 
tion  over    it ;    and  all   other  drink,  water  alone  ex- 

1  Tract  B'rakhoth  55  a.,  cited  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  M.  Jastrow. 
2  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  350-355. 
3  Ceremonies  and  Religious  Customs    of  the    Various  Nations   of  the, 
Known  World,  I.,  245.     London,  1733. 


TABLE   CUSTOMS  AMONG  JEWS  Sy 

cepted,  is  consecrated  in  the  same  manner.  The 
master  of  the  family  concludes  with  Psalm  23,  and 
then  every  one  eats  what  he  thinks  convenient,  with- 
out further  ceremony.  The  ceremony  of  cutting  the 
loaf  without  separation  has  the  same  reason  to  sup- 
port it ;  and  a  passage  from  Psalm  10:3  ls  a  voucher 
for  its  solidity.  The  master  of  the  house  holds  the 
bread  in  both  his  hands,  in  commemoration  of  the 
ten  precepts  relating  to  corn  ;  and  each  finger  is 
the  representative  of  one  of  them.1 

"  The  salt  as  the  religious  intention  of  it  is  typical 
of  the  ancient  sacrifices.  Meat  without  salt  has  no 
savor,  which  is  proved  from  a  passage  in  Job,  chapter 
6,  verse  6.2     This  is  civil  policy  confirmed  by  religion. 

"A  modest  deportment  at  table  is  much  recom- 
mended ;  so  likewise  is  temperance  and  sobriety. 
Their  bread  must  be  kept  in  a  very  neat  place,  and 
preserved  with  all  imaginary  care.  They  must  talk 
but  little,  and  with  discretion  at  table,  because,  ac- 
cording to  the  opinion  of  the  rabbis,  the  prophet 
Elijah,  and  each  respective  guest's  guardian  angel,  are 
present  at  all  meals.  Whenever  that  angel  hears  any- 
thing indecent  uttered  there,  he  retires,  and  a  wicked 
one  assumes  his  place.  They  never  throw  down  bones 
of  flesh  or  fish  upon  the  ground  ;  but,  however,  this 

1  Buxtorf  ex  Talmud.  t  ]bid.,  cap.  xii. 


88  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

caution  is  not  the  result  of  cleanliness  only,  but  fear, 
lest  they  should  hurt  any  of  those  invisible  beings.1 

"The  knife  that  cuts  their  meat,  must  never  touch 
what  is  made  of  milk  ; 2  whatever,  in  short,  strikes  the 
senses  in  any  manner,  must  be  blessed.  They  never 
rise  from  the  table  without  leaving  something  for  the 
poor ;  but  the  knives  must  be  removed  before  they 
return  thanks,  because  it  is  written,  'Thou  shalt  set  no 
iron  on  the  altar.'  Now  a  table  is  the  representative 
of  an  altar,  at  saying  grace  before,  or  returning  thanks 
after  meal."  3 

That  the  table  was  looked  at  as  an  altar  among 
ancient  peoples,  is  to  be  inferred  from  various  proverbs 
and  practices  with  reference  to  it.  Thus  one  of  the 
symbolic  sayings  of  Pythagoras  is,  "  Pick  not  up  what 
is  fallen  from  the  table."  4  A  comment  on  this  is, 
that  as  the  table  was  consecrated  to  divinities,  what- 
ever fell  from  it  was  not  to  be  restored,  but  to 
be  left,  as  was  the  gleaning  of  God's  fields,  for  the 
poor.5  When  the  Syrophoenician  woman  said  to 
Jesus,  "Yea,  Lord  :  for  even  the  dogs  eat  of  the 
crumbs  which   fall    from   their  masters'    table,"  6    she 

1  Dr.  Kohler  states  that  the  reason  for  not  throwing  these  fragments  on 
the  ground,  is  because  the  Jews  would  not  disgrace  what  is  regarded  as  a 
special  gift  of  God. 

2  Because  meat  and  milk  are  never  to  be  eaten  together.  See  p.  62, 
supra.     (Exod.  23  :  19 ;  34  :  26  ;  Dent.  14  :  21.) 

:i  Buxtorf  ex  Talmud,  cap.  xii.       4  Dacier's  Life  of  Pythagoras,  p.  116. 
5  Lev.  19  :  9,  10;  Dent.  24  :  19-21.  6  Matt.  15  :  27. 


SALT  IN   THE  EUCHARIST  89 

spoke  in  recognition  of  this  primitive  truth,  that  the 
crumbs  from  the  table  might  be  shared  by  whoever 
hungered. 

A  usage  in  the  early  Latin  Church  would  seem  to 
be  in  the  line  of  the  Jewish  thought,  that  bread  and 
salt  at  the  table  are  a  sacrifice,  or  a  sacrament ;  and 
it  would  also  appear  to  be  in  recognition  of  the  fact 
that  salt  stands  for  blood,  or  for  life.  The  catechu- 
mens, before  they  were  privileged  to  share  in  the 
Eucharist,  were  made  partakers  of  the  sacrament  of 
salt  (sacramentum  sails), — salt  placed  in  the  mouth, 
accompanied  by  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  by  invoca- 
tions and  exorcisms.1 

St.  Augustine,  speaking  of  this  sacrament,  says : 
"What  they  receive  is  holy,  although  it  is  not  the 
body  of  Christ, — holier  than  any  food  which  consti- 
tutes our  ordinary  nourishment,  because  it  is  a  sacra- 
ment." And,  referring  to  its  reception  by  himself, 
he  says  :  "I  was  now  signed  with  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  and  was  seasoned  with  his  salt."  2 

In  the  Greek  Church,  salt  is  still  deemed  an  essen- 
tial element  of  the  Eucharistic  bread.  It  is  said,  in- 
deed,   that   the   salt    "  represents   the   life,   so   that   a 

1  Bingham's  Antiquities  of  the  Christian  Church,  Book  X.,  Chap.  2; 
Smith  and  Cheetham's  Dictionary  of  Christian  Antiiquities ;  arts.  "  Cate- 
cumens,"'  "  Salt." 

2  St.  Augustine's  Treatise  on  Forgiveness  of  Sins  and  Baptism,  II.,  46. 


90  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

sacrifice  without  salt  is  but  a  dead  sacrifice."  The 
same  is  true  of  the  Armenian  and  Syrian  Christians, 
and  Alcuin  refers  to  the  fact  that,  in  his  day,  certain 
Christians  in  Spain  insisted  that  salt  should  be  put 
into  the  bread  for  the  Eucharist1 

Salt  is  put  into  the  mouth  of  an  infant  at  its  bap- 
tism, in  the  Roman  Church  of  to-day.2  In  admin- 
istering the  salt  to  the  babe  the  priest  says :  "  Receive 
the  salt  of  wisdom.  May  it  be  a  propitiation  for  thee 
to  eternal  life."3  All  "  holy  water,"  in  that  church, 
contains  salt  as  an  essential  element4  At  the  dedica- 
tion of  a  church,  water  mixed  with  ashes  and  salt  is 
employed  for  the  sprinkling  of  the  corners  of  the  altar, 
and  other  portions  of  the  church  ;  and  the  remainder 
is  poured  out  at  the  foot  of  the  altar,  where  the  sacri- 
ficial blood  was  of  old  poured  out  in  the  Temple 
offerings."  5 

In  the  Brahmanas,  of  the  Vedic  literature,  salt  is 
described  as  the  one  "sacrificial  essence"  which  is 
common  to  both  sky  and  earth.  In  the  ritual  direc- 
tions for  the  "ceremony  of  establishing  a  set  of  sacri- 
ficial fires,  on  the  part  of  a  young  householder,"  the 
sacrificer,    under  the  guidance   of   the   priests,  is  de- 

1  Smith    and    Cheetham's    Diet,    of  Chris.    Antiq.,  arts.    "  Elements," 
"Salt." 

2  Rituale  Romanorum,  p.  29  f.  3  Ibid.  *  Ibid.,  p.  276  f. 

5  Smith  and  Cheetham's  Diet,  of  Chris.  Antiq.,  art.  "Salt." 


SALT  AS  SACRIFICIAL   ESSENCE  91 

scribed  as  proceeding  to  equip  Agni,  the  fire,  with  its 
proper  equipments.  He  having  brought  water  and 
gold,1  it  is  said  :  "  He  then  brings  salt.  Yonder  sky 
assuredly  bestowed  that  (salt  as)  cattle  on  this  earth  : 
hence  they  say  that  salt  soil  is  suitable  for  cattle. 
That  salt,  therefore,  means  cattle  ;  and  thus  he 
thereby  supplies  it  (the  fire)  with  cattle ;  and  the  latter 
having  come  from  yonder  (sky)  is  securely  established 
on  this  earth.  Moreover,  that  (salt)  is  believed  to  be 
the  savor  (rasa)  of  those  two,  the  sky  and  the  earth  ; 
so  that  he  thereby  supplies  it  (the  fire)  with  the  savor 
of  those  two,  the  sky  and  the  earth.  That  is  why  he 
brings  salt."  2 

According  to  the  Brahmanas,  the  first  offered  sacri- 
fice was  a  man.  When  "the  sacrificial  essence"  went 
out  of  the  man  in  his  offering,  it  went  into  the  horse, 
then  into  the  ox,  then  into  the  sheep,  then  into  the 
goat.  And  afterwards  it  would  seem  to  have  been 
represented  in  salt.  So  in  bringing  salt  to  the  fire  for 
sacrifice,  there  are  brought  cattle,  or  animal  offerings, 
with  their  blood  and  their  life.3 

It  is  said  in  Brahmanic  explanation  of  the  pre-emi- 
nent value  of  salt  as  a  sacrificial  essence,  that  it  was 

1  Fire  is  masculine,  water  is  feminine,  gold  is  seed,  according  to  the 
Vedic  literature. 

2  Miiller's  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XII.,  278  {Satapatha  Brdhmana). 

3  Ibid.,  p.  50. 


92  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

made  thus  by  an  original  agreement  between  the  sky 
and  the  earth.  "The  sky  and  the  earth  were  origi- 
nally close  together.  On  being  separated,  they  said  to 
each  other,  '  Let  there  be  a  common  sacrificial  essence 
(ya-^vz-iyam)  for  us  ! '  What  sacrificial  essence  there 
was  belonging  to  yonder  sky,  that  it  bestowed  on  this 
earth,  that  became  the  salt  (in  the  earth),  and  what 
sacrificial  essence  there  was  belonging  to  this  earth, 
that  it  bestowed  on  yonder  sky,  that  became  the  black 
(spots)  in  the  moon.  When  he  throws  salt  (on  the 
fire-place),  let  him  think  it  to  be  that  {viz :  the  black 
in  the  moon) :  it  is  on  the  sacrificial  essence  of  the  sky 
and  the  earth  that  he  sets  up  his  fire."  l 

Among  the  Booddhists  in  China,  where  the  sacrifices 
are  almost  exclusively  vegetable,  salt  and  wine  are 
added  in  separate  cups.2  This  would  seem  to  suggest 
the  symbolism  of  both  blood  and  wine  in  the  offerings. 

Salt  had  its  place  in  sacrifices  in  ancient  Egypt. 
Herodotus  tells,  for  instance,  of  the  great  annual 
festival  at  Sa'is,  in  honor  of  the  goddess  Neith,  cor- 
responding to  Athena  or  Minerva.  Neith  was,  in  fact, 
another  presentation  of  Isis,  and  was  known  as  "  the 
great  mother  of  all  life."  In  conjunction  with  the 
sacrifices    on    this    occasion,    there  was    the    Feast   of 

1  Muller's  Sacred  Books  of  the  East,  XTT.,  278,  note. 
2Morris's  China  and  the  Chinese,  p.  154. 


EGYPTIAN  AND  ETRUSCAN  SYMBOLISM    93 

Burning  Lamps,  when  all  the  inhabitants  burned,  in 
the  open  air,  about  their  houses,  lamps  filled  with  oil 
and  salt.  He  says,  moreover:  "The  Egyptians  who 
are  absent  from  the  festival  [at  Sa'is]  observe  the  rite 
of  the  sacrifice,  no  less  than  the  rest,  by  a  general 
lighting  of  lamps  ;  so  that  the  illumination  is  not  con- 
fined to  the  city  of  Sais,  but  extends  over  the  whole 
of  Egypt."  l  Wilkinson  says  of  these  lamps  and  their 
contents :  "The  oil  floated  on  water  mixed  with  salt;" 
and  he  suggests  a  correspondence  of  this  custom  with 
a  like  one  in  India  and  in  China.2 

Friedrich,  in  his  "  Symbolism  of  Nature,"  speaking 
of  this  festival,  says  that  the  "salt  symbolized  the  crea- 
tion of  life,  and  the  light  that  it  came  forth  from  dark- 
ness into  existence  ;  therefore  this  did  well  suit  the 
festival."  And  a  collector  of  Etruscan  remains,  re- 
ferring to  the  magic  lamp  still  used  in  Italy,  says, 
in  connection  with  these  words  of  Friedrich,  that  the 
"  wick  fire  seemed  so  mysterious  to  the  Rosicrucian 
Lord  Blaize  that  he  wrote  a  book  on  it,  and  on  the 
blessed  secrets  of  salt."3 

Salt  was  essential  to  a  sacrifice  among  the  ancient 
Romans,  as  among  the  Hebrews.  A  cake  made  of 
coarsely   ground  spelt,   or  wheat,    mingled  with  salt, 

1  Rawlinson's  History  of  Herodotus,  II.,  92  (Book  II.,  Chap.  62). 

2  Ibid.,  note.     See  also  Wilkinson's  Ancient  Egyptians,  III.,  380. 

3  Leland's  Etruscan-Roman  Remains^  p.  324  f. 


94  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

was  broken,  or  bruised,  and  sprinkled  upon  the  head 
of  the  victim  for  sacrifice,  upon  the  fire  of  the  altar, 
and  upon  the  sacrificial  knife.  Hence  the  term 
"  immolation,"  or  sprinkling  with  this  salted  meal, 
came  to  be  synonymous  with  sacrificing.1  Pliny,  tell- 
ing of  the  priceless  value  of  salt,  says  of  it  in  conclu- 
sion :  "  It  is  in  our  sacred  rites,  more  especially,  that 
its  high  importance  is  recognized,  no  offering  ever 
being  made  unaccompanied  by  the  salted  cake  [sine 
mo/a  salso]"  2  And  Ovid  says,  that  "in  days  of  old 
it  was  plain  spelt,  and  the  sparkling  grain  of  unadul- 
terated salt  that  had  efficacy  to  render  the  gods  pro- 
pitious to  man."  3 

There  is  good  reason  for  believing  that  it  was  much 
the  same  with  the  Greeks  as  with  the  Romans,  al- 
though the  fact  that  this  is  not  distinctly  declared  in 
the  classic  texts  has  led  some  modern  scholars  to  call 
it  in  question.  Barley-meal  cakes,  with  or  without 
salt,  were  certainly  employed  by  the  Greeks  in  their 
sacrifices.4  And  Homer  speaks  of  salt  as  "divine."5 
When,  therefore,  it  is  considered  that  salt  was  counted 

1  Harper's  Latin  Dictionary,  s.  vv.  "  Immolate,"  "  Mola." 

2  Pliny's  Hist.  Nat.,  Bostock  and  Riley's  trans.,  XXXI.,  41. 

3  Ovid's  Fasti,  I.,  337.  See,  also,  Cooper's  Virgil,  notes  on  Aeneid, 
Books  II.  and  XII. 

*  Homer's  Iliad,  I.,  449,  458  ;  II.,  410,  421  ;  Odyssey,  III.,  425,  441; 
Philo's  Opera,  2  :  240. 

5  Iliad,  IX.,  214.  See  Eustathius's  Commentary,  I.,  748-750,  ed.  Basle 
(p.  648,  ed.  Rome). 


SALT  LEAPING   UP  IN  FIRE  95 

essential  in  sacrifices  among  the  ancient  Egyptians, 
Hindoos,  and  Hebrews,  as  also  later  among  the  Ro- 
mans, it  would  seem  to  need  proof  to  the  contrary  to 
meet  the  natural  presumption  that  the  Greeks  also  made 
use  of  "divine  salt"  in  their  sacred  sacrificial  cakes. 

Salt  was  offered  at  every  little  shrine  by  the  way- 
side in  Guatemala,  in  Central  America,  in  olden  time. 
It  was  an  acceptable  gift  to  the  gods.1 

Wellhausen,  in  treating  of  the  remains  of  Arabian 
paganism,2  tells  of  the  custom  of  the  old  priests  of 
throwing  salt  into  the  fire  of  sacrifice,  unperceived  by 
the  worshiper  as  he  appealed  to  the  gods  in  his  oath, 
and  of  the  consequent  startling  of  the  offerer  by  the 
up-leaping  flames,  as  though  under  a  divine  impulse. 
Various  popular  sayings  are  cited  as  incidental  proofs 
of  this  custom ;  the  purport  of  them  all  being  that  salt 
in  the  fires  of  sacrifice  is  supposed  to  be  an  effective 
appeal  to  the  gods. 

Pliny  says  that  4<  salt,  regarded  by  itself,  is  naturally 
igneous,  and  yet  it  manifests  an  antipathy  to  fire,  and 
flies  from  it.3  This  would  seem  to  be  a  reference  to 
the  tendency  of  salt  to  spring  up,  or  flash  and  sparkle, 
when  thrown  into  the  flames. 


1  See  Bancroft's  Native  Races  of  the  Pacific  Coast,  II.,  719. 

2  Wellhausen's  Reste  Arabischen  Heidentumes,  in  Skizzen  und  Vorar- 
beiten,  III.,  124,  131. 

3  Hist.  Nat.,  XXXI.,  45. 


96  THE  COVENANT   OF  SALT 

It  has  indeed  been  suggested  that  the  very  name 
"salt"  was  derived  (through  saltus,  "to  leap")  from 
the  tendency  of  this  substance  "to  leap  and  explode 
when  thrown  upon  fire."  l  If  there  be  any  proba- 
bility in  this  suggestion,  or  in  another,  and  more 
natural  one,  that  saltus  was  from  the  same  root  as  sal, 
"salt,"  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  primitive  mind  might 
infer  that  such  was  the  affinity  of  salt  with  the  divine, 
that,  when  offered  by  fire,  it  leaped  toward  heaven, 
and  so  was  understood  to  be  peculiarly  acceptable  to 
God  or  to  the  gods,  in  sacrifice.  The  Latin  verb  salts 
has  the  twofold  meaning  "to  salt"  or  "to  sprinkle 
before  sacrifice,"  and  "to  leap,  spring,  bound,  jump;" 
and  the  root  sal  would  seem  to  be  in  the  Latin  and 
the  Sanskrit  alike.2  Similarly,  the  word  "salacious," 
or  lustful,  had  this  origin. 

It  is  evident  that  the  primitive  popular  mind  recog- 
nized salt  as  a  peculiarly  acceptable  offering  in  sacrifice 
to  God  or  the  gods,  and  that  its  very  name  in  various 
combinations  seemed  to  suggest  the  aspiring  or  up- 
rising heavenward. 

1  See  citation  of  Lennep,  and  Scheideus,  in  Richardson's  English  Dic- 
tionary, s.  v.  "Salt." 

2See  Harper's  Latin  Dictionary,  s.  vv.  "sal,"  "salio,"  "saltus.'' 


X 

SALT    IN    EXORCISM   AND    DIVINATION 


X 

SALT  IN  EXORCISM  AND   DIVINATION 

The  line  between  sacrificial  offerings  and  offerings 
for  the  purpose  of  exorcising  evil  spirits,  or  of  pro- 
pitiating good  spirits,  is  not  always  a  clear  line  even 
in  the  mind  of  the  offerer  ;  but  there  are  uses  of  salt 
among  primitive  peoples  which  must  be  placed  under 
the  head  of  exorcisms  and  divinations,  and  as  an 
accompaniment  of  incantations,  rather  than  under  the 
head  of  sacrifices,  even  though  they  may  be  only  per- 
versions of  the  original  idea  of  sacrifice. 

Burckhardt  tells  of  the  burning  of  salt,  by  way  of 
exorcism,  among  the  people  of  Daraon,  on  the  borders 
of  Upper  Egypt  and  Nubia.  His  caravan  was  about 
being  loaded  for  a  journey.  "Just  before  the  lading 
commenced,"  he  says,  "  the  Ababde  women  appeared 
with  earthen  vessels  in  their  hands,  filled  with  burning 
coals.  They  set  them  before  the  several  loads,  and 
threw  salt  upon  them.  At  the  rising  of  the  bluish 
flame  produced  by  the  burning  of  the  salt,  they  ex- 
claimed, '  May  you  be  blessed  in  going  and  in  com- 

99 


IOO  THE  COVENANT  OE  SALT 

ing ! '  The  devil  and  every  evil  genius  are  thus,  they 
say,  removed."  l 

Among  Muhammadan  Arabs,  in  and  out  of  Egypt, 
salt  is  sprinkled  on  the  floors  of  every  apartment  in 
the  houses,  on  the  last  night  of  the  month  of  Rama- 
dan, accompanied  by  the  words,  "  In  the  name  of 
God,  the  Compassionate,  the  Merciful  !"  This  is  be- 
cause the  evil  jinn,  or  genii,  are  supposed  to  be  con- 
fined in  prison  during  that  month,  and  the  sprinkling 
of  salt,  with  the  prescribed  invocation,  ensures  protec- 
tion from  them  as  they  renew  their  work  of  harm. 
Salt  is  also  sprinkled  on  the  floor  after  the  birth  of  a 
child,  as  a  propitiatory  offering  for  mother  and  child, 
against  the  influence  of  the  evil  eye.2 

In  China,  on  the  eve  of  the  new  year,  salt  is  thrown 
into  the  fire,  and  the  manner  of  its  burning  is  taken  as 
an  indication,  favorable  or  unfavorable,  for  the  coming 
year.  It  is  a  species  of  divination  by  salt.3  In  Japan, 
the  burning  of  salt,  or  the  offering  it  in  this  way  to 
the  gods,  is  a  propitiatory  sacrifice  in  time  of  dan- 
ger ;  and  it  is  scattered  at  the  threshold  for  a  similar 
purpose  after  a  funeral.4     In  Syria,  also,  the  burning 

'  Burckhardt's  Travels  in  Nubia,  p.  157. 
2  Lane's  Arabian  Society  in  the  Middle  Ages,  pp.  41,  188. 
3  Doolittle's  Social  Life  of  the  Chinese,  II.,  58  f. 
4  Griffis's  Mikado's  Empire,  pp.  467,  470  \  Bird's  Untrodden  Track*  in 
Japan,  1.,  392. 


BURNING  SALT  IN  EUROPE  IOI 

of  a  lump  of  salt  in  the  fire  is  resorted  to  as  a  means 
of  exorcising  the  malevolent  spirit  which  afflicts  one 
through  the  "evil  eye."  1 

While  suspected  persons,  or  persons  of  doubtful 
orthodoxy,  were  undergoing  the  "  ordeal  of  boiling 
water"  under  ecclesiastical  authority,  in  the  Middle 
Ages  and  earlier,  it  is  said  that  "  by  way  of  extra  pre- 
caution, in  some  ritual  it  is  ordered  that  holy  water 
and  blessed  salt  be  mingled  in  all  the  food  and  drink 
of  the  patient — presumably  to  avert  diabolical  inter- 
ference with  the  result."  2 

Among  the  folk-lore  customs  in  modern  Greece 
salt  has  prominence  in  various  ways.  Salt  must  be 
pounded  on  certain  days  and  in  a  certain  way,  in 
order  to  guard  against  ill  luck.  Salt  must  never  be 
carried  out  of  the  house  after  dark.3 

In  Scotland  and  in  England,  as  well  as  in  the  East, 
the  use  of  burning  salt  in  exorcism  has  continued 
in  the  more  primitive  regions  down  to  the  present 
century.  James  Napier  tells,  for  example,  of  the 
treatment  to  which  he  was  subjected  as  a  child,  when 
it  was  surmised  that  he  had  gotten  "  a  blink  of  an  ill 
e'e."      He  says  :   "A  sixpence  was  borrowed  from  a 

1  George  A.  Ford,  in  The  Church  at  Home  and  Abroad,  Dec.,  1889,  p.  501. 

2  Martene,  De  Antiq.  Eccles.  Ritibus,  Lib.  III.,  c.  vii.,  Ordo.  19;  cited 
in  Lea's  Superstition  and  Force,  p.  281. 

3  Rodd's  Customs  and  Lore  of  Modern  Greece,  p.  156. 


102  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

• 

neighbor,  a  good  fire  was  kept  burning  in  the  grate,  the 
door  was  kept  locked,  and  I  was  placed  upon  a  chair 
in  front  of  the  fire.  The  operator,  an  old  woman, 
took  a  tablespoon  and  filled  it  with  water.  With  the 
sixpence  she  then  lifted  as  much  salt  as  it  could  carry, 
and  both  were  put  into  the  water  in  the  spoon.  The 
water  was  then  stirred  with  the  forefinger  till  the  salt 
was  dissolved.  Then  the  soles  of  my  feet  and  the 
palms  of  my  hands  were  bathed  with  this  solution 
thrice,  and  after  these  bathings  I  was  made  to  taste 
the  solution  three  times.  The  operator  then  drew  her 
wet  forefinger  across  my  brow, — called  'scoring  aboon 
the  breath.'  The  remaining  contents  of  the  spoon 
she  then  cast  over  the  fire,  into  the  hinder  part  of  the 
fire,  saying  as  she  did  so,  'Guid  preserve  frae  a'  skith.' 
These  were  the  first  words  permitted  to  be  spoken 
during  the  operation."  x  Mr.  Napier  adds  that  while 
in  his  case  the  "scoring  aboon  the  breath"  was  ac- 
complished by  scoring  with  a  finger  wet  with  salt 
water,  the  suspected  possessor  of  an  evil  eye  was 
scored  with  the  finger-nails,  or  some  sharp  instrument, 
so  as  to  draw  blood.  The  blood  and  the  salt  seemed 
to  have  correspondent  values. 

In  the  southern  counties  of  England,  salt  is  thrown 
into  the  fire  by  way  of  invoking  spiritual  aid  in  behalf 

1  folk-Lore  of  the  West  of  Scotland,  p.  36  f. 


SALT  ON  A    CORPSE  IN  SCOTLAND  1 03 

of  a  lass  who  would  win  back  a  recreant  lover.  "  A 
pinch  of  salt  must  be  thrown  into  the  fire  on  three  suc- 
cessive Friday  nights,  while  these  lines  are  repeated  : 

"  '  It  is  not  this  salt  I  wish  to  burn, 
It  is  my  lover's  heart  to  turn  ; 
That  he  may  neither  rest,  nor  happy  be, 
Until  he  comes  and  speaks  to  me.'  "  1 

There  seems  to  be  a  special  value  in  the  sacred 
number  "three,"  in  the  appeals  through  salt  to  the 
spiritual  powers.  In  the  Scottish  Lowlands,  "when 
a  dead  body  has  been  washed  and  laid  out,  one  of  the 
oldest  women  present  must  light  a  candle,  and  wave 
it  three  times  around  the  corpse.  Then  she  must 
measure  three  handfuls  of  common  salt  into  an  earth- 
enware plate,  and  lay  it  on  the  breast.  Lastly  she 
arranges  three  'toom,'  or  empty  dishes,  on  the  hearth, 
as  near  as  possible  to  the  fire  ;  and  all  the  attendants 
going  out  of  the  room  return  into  it  backwards,  repeat 
this  '  rhyme  of  saining  : ' 

"  'Thrice  the  torchie,  thrice  the  saltie, 

Thrice  the  dishes  toom  for  "loffie"  (£.  e.,  praise), 

These  three  times  three  ye  must  wave  round 

The  corpse,  until  it  sleep  sound. 

Sleep  sound  and  wake  nane, 

Till  to  heaven  the  soul's  gane. 

If  ye  want  that  soul  to  dee 

Fetch  the  torch  th'  Elleree  ; 

1  Henderson's  Folk- Lore  of  the  Northern  Counties,  p.  176. 


104  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

Gin  ye  want  that  soul  to  live, 
Between  the  dishes  place  a  sieve, 
An  it  sail  have  a  fair,  fair  shrive. '  " l 

In  connection  with  the  putting  of  a  plate  of  salt  on 
the  breast  of  a  dead  body,  there  were  various  usages. 
A  plate  of  bread  was  sometimes  set  with  the  salt,  and 
again  a  plate  of  earth  was  its  accompaniment.  And 
different  reasons  were  assigned  for  the  presence  of  the 
salt  there.  Napier  says  that  many  persons  claimed 
for  it  a  value  in  preventing  the  swelling  of  the  body 
in  process  of  decomposition,  "  but  its  original  purpose 
was  to  act  as  a  charm  against  the  devil,  to  prevent 
him  from  disturbing  the  body."  2 

"  Pennant  tells  us  that  formerly,  in  Scotland,  the 
corpse  being  stretched  on  a  board  and  covered  with  a 
close  linen  wrapper,  the  friends  laid  on  the  breast  of 
the  deceased  a  wooden  platter,  containing  a  small 
quantity  of  salt  and  earth,  separate  and  unmixed  ; 
the  earth  an  emblem  of  the  corruptible  body,  the  salt 
as  an  emblem  of  the  immortal  spirit  [the  life]."  3 

Napier  adds  :  "  There  was  an  older  superstition 
which  gave  another  explanation  for  the  plate  of  salt 
on  the  breast.  There  were  persons  calling  themselves 
'sin-eaters,'  who,  when  a  person  died,  were  sent  for  to 

1  Henderson's  Folk-Lore  of  the  Northern  Counties,  p.  53. 

2  Folk- Lore  of  the  West  of  Scotland,  p.  60. 

3  Thistleton  Dyer's  Domestic  Folk-Lore,  p.  60. 


SALT  IN  ETRUSCAN  CUSTOMS  105 

come  and  eat  the  sins  of  the  deceased.  When  they 
came,  their  modus  operandi  was  to  place  a  plate  of 
salt  and  a  plate  of  bread  on  the  breast  of  the  corpse, 
and  repeat  a  series  of  incantations,  after  which  they 
ate  the  contents  of  the  plates,  and  so  relieved  the 
dead  person  of  such  sins  as  would  have  kept  him 
hovering  around  his  relations,  haunting  them  with 
his  imperfectly  purified  spirit,  to  their  great  annoy- 
ance, and  without  satisfaction  to  himself."  l  The 
basis  of  this  plan  of  vicarious  substitution  of  personal- 
ity would  seem  to  be,  in  the  entering  of  the  "  sin-eat- 
ers "  into  oneness  of  life  with  the  deceased  through 
the  salt  covenant  or  the  blood  covenant,  in  partaking 
of  his  body  and  blood  in  the  bread  and  salt  from  his 
breast 

Leland,  in  his  "  Etruscan-Roman  Remains  in  Popu- 
lar Tradition,"  says  that  there  was,  among  the  Tuscan 
Romans,  an  incantation,  or  an  invocation,  for  every 
emergency.  "  If  salt  upset,  they  said,  '  Dii  avertite 
omen  ! '  "  2  In  Sicily,  a  goddess  known  as  the  Mother 
of  the  Day  "is  invoked  when  salt  is  spilt."  3  He  also 
cites  various  incantations  and  exorcisms,  in  which  salt 
is  an  essential  factor.4 

A  custom  prevails  in  some   portions  of  Pennsyl- 

1  Folk- Lore,  p.  60.  a  Etruscan-Roman  Remains,  p.  12. 

3  Ibid.,  p.  148.         *  Ibid.,  pp.  122,  204,  242,  264,  281,  286,  287,  312,  345. 


106  THE  COVENANT  OE  SALT 

vania,  even  to  this  day,  of  carrying  a  bag  of  salt, 
with  a  Bible,  over  the  threshold,  on  entering  a  new 
house  for  the  first  time.  There  are  families  who 
would  not  consent  to  live  in  a  home  which  had  not 
been  thus  consecrated.1  This  would  seem  to  be  a 
survival  of  the  passing  over  the  threshold  with  an 
offering  of  blood.  A  correspondence  of  this  practice 
with  ancient  Etruscan  customs  seems  to  be  indicated 
by  the  collections  of  Leland.2  Among  the  Mordvins, 
a  Finnish  people  on  the  Volga,  salt  on  bread  is  placed 
under  the  threshold  of  the  bride's  paternal  home  at 
the  time  of  a  marriage  covenant.3  This  may  be 
classed  with  sacrifices  or  with  divination  according 
to  our  idea  of  the  workings  of  the  primitive  Mordvin 
mind. 

1  ThresholdCovenant,  p.  21.  2  Etruscan-Roman  Remains,  p.  306. 

3  Ralston's  Songs  of  the  Russian  People,  p.  277  f. 


XI 

FAITHLESSNESS  TO  SALT 


XI 

FAITHLESSNESS  TO  SALT 

The  fact  that  in  its  primitive  conception  a  covenant 
of  salt  is  a  permanent  and  unalterable  covenant, 
naturally  suggests  to  the  primitive  mind  the  idea  of 
treachery  as  faithlessness  to  salt.  The  Persian  term 
for  a  "traitor"  is  namak  hardm,  "  untrue  to  salt," 
"one  faithless  to  salt;"1  and  the  same  idea  runs 
through  the  languages  of  the  Oriental  world. 

Baron  du  Tott,  referring  to  the  sharing  of  bread  and 
salt,  says:  "The  Turks  think  it  the  blackest  ingrati- 
tude to  forget  the  man  from  whom  we  have  received 
food,  which  is  signified  by  the  bread  and  salt."  2  But 
it  is  obvious  that  it  is  faithlessness  to  salt,  not  to  bread 
or  ordinary  food,  that  is  deemed  blackest  ingratitude. 
This  is  in  India,  as  in  Turkey.  Tamerlane,  the 
Mongol-Tatar  chieftain,  speaking,  in  his  institutes,  of 
one  Share  Behraum,  who  had  deserted  his  service  for 
the  enemy  and  afterwards  returned  to  his  allegiance, 

1  Gesenius's  Thesaurus,  p.  790. 
2  Memoirs  of  the  Turks  and  Tartars,  Part  I.,  p.  214;  cited  in  Bush's 
Illustrations  of  the  Holy  Scriptures,  at  Numbers  18  :  19. 

109 


HO  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

says  :  "At  length  my  salt  which  he  had  eaten  over- 
whelmed him  with  remorse,  he  again  threw  himself  on 
my  mercy,  and  humbled  himself  before  me."  x  Frazer 
quotes  a  rebel  chief  in  India  as  saying,  when  he 
capitulated  after  a  siege,  and  was  asked  if  he  would 
return  to  his  old  allegiance,  "  No,  I  can  no  more 
visit  my  country ;  I  must  look  for  service  elsewhere. 
I  can  never  face  the  rajah  again ;  for  I  have  eaten 
Ghoorka  salt.  I  was  in  trust,  and  I  have  not  died  at 
my  post.     We  can  never  return  to  our  country."  2 

Burton  says  that  the  Bed'ween  of  Arabia  denounce 
the  Syrians  as  "abusers  of  the  salt,"  because  they 
cannot  be  depended  on  in  their  agreements.3  And 
Dr.  Thomson  says  that  Orientals  "  often  upbraid  the 
civilized  Frank  because  he  does  not  keep  bread  and 
salt,  is  not  faithful  to  the  covenant  of  brotherhood."  4 

Burton  says  also,  of  the  Bed\veen  of  El  Hejaz: 
"'We  have  eaten  salt  together"  (nahnu  malihiri)  is 
still  a  bond  of  friendship:  there  are,  however,  some 
tribes  who  require  to  renew  the  bond  every  twenty- 
four  hours,  as  otherwise,  to  use  their  own  phrase,  '  the 
salt  is  not  in  their  stomachs.'  "  5     And  he  quotes  the 

1  Quoted  in  Burder's  Oriental  Customs,  2d  ed.,  p.  77. 
2  Frazer's  Journal  of  Tour  through   Himala   Mountains,   quoted   in 
Burder,  p.  77,  at  Ezra  4  :  14. 

3  Pilgrimage  to  El  Medinah  and  Meccah,  III.,  114. 
*  The  Land  and  the  Book,  II.,  41.  5  Pilgrimage,  III.,  84. 


ORIENTAL  SUMMIT  OF  TREACHERY      III 

advice  to  him  of  Shaykh  Hamid,  concerning  the  Bed'- 
ween  who  were  to  escort  him  from  El  Medinah, 
"  never  to  allow  twenty-four  hours  to  elapse  without 
dipping  hand  in  the  same  dish  with  them,  in  order 
that  the  party  might  always  be  'malihin,'  on  terms  of 
salt."  L  Treachery  on  the  part  of  one  who  has  even 
partaken  of  an  ordinaiy  meal  with  another  is,  how- 
ever, counted,  among  Orientals,  a  peculiar  crime,  as 
surprising  as  it  is  unusual.2 

Of  course,  there  is  no  human  bond  which  will  guard 
human  nature  against  all  possible  treachery.  These 
references  to  the  measure  of  fidelity  among  different 
peoples  or  tribes  are  an  indication  of  the  relative  de- 
gree of  faithfulness  prevailing  among  them  severally. 
Those  who  are  faithless  to  salt  cannot  be  depended 
on  for  anything.  If  a  man  would  not  be  true  to  one 
who  is  of  his  own  blood,  of  his  own  life,  and  to  whom 
he  is  bound  in  a  sacred  covenant  of  which  his  God  is  a 
party,  he  could  not  be  depended  on  in  any  emergency. 
The  covenant  of  salt  is  all  this  in  the  thought  of  the 
primitive  mind. 

Don  Raphel  says,  of  the  estimate  of  faithlessness  to 
salt  entertained  by  Arabs  generally :  "  When  they 
have  eaten  bread  and  salt  with  any  one,  it  would  be  a 
horrid  crime  not  only  to  rob  him,  but  even  to  touch 

1  Pilgrimage,  II.,  334.  2  Psa.  41  :  9 ;  John  13  :  18. 


ii2  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

the  smallest  part  of  his  baggage,  or  of  the  goods  which 
he  takes  with  him  through  the  desert.  The  smallest 
injury  done  to  his  person  would  be  considered  as  an 
equal  wickedness.  An  Arab  who  should  be  guilty  of 
such  a  crime  would  be  looked  upon  as  a  wretch  who 
might  expect  reproof  and  detestation  from  everybody. 
He  would  appear  despicable  to  himself,  and  never  be 
able  to  wash  away  his  shame.  It  is  almost  unheard 
of  for  an  Arab  to  bring  such  disgrace  upon  himself."  * 

It  was  said  by  the  ancient  Jews  that  Sodom  was 
destroyed  because  its  inhabitants  had  been  faithless  to 
salt,  in  maltreating  guests  who  had  partaken  of  salt  in 
their  city.  In  a  Talmudic  comment  on  Lot's  wife, 
the  record  is:  "  Rabbi  Isaac  asked,  'Why  did  she 
become  a  pillar  of  salt?'  'Because  she  had  sinned 
through  salt.  For  in  the  night  in  which  the  men 
came  to  Lot  she  went  to  her  neighbors,  and  said  to 
them,  Give  me  salt,  for  we  have  guests.  But  her 
purpose  was  to  make  (the  evil-minded)  people  of  the 
city  acquainted  with  the  guests.  Therefore  was  she 
turned  into  a  pillar  of  salt.'  "  2 

This  idea  of  foul  treachery  as  equivalent  to  faith- 
lessness in  the  matter  of  salt,  seems  to  be  perpetuated 

1  The  Bedouins   or  Arabs   of  the  Desert,  Part  II.,  p.  59;    quoted  in 
Burder's  Oriental  Customs,  2d  ed.,  p.  72. 

2  Rev.  Dr.  Marcus  Jastrow  refers   to  this  in  an   article  on  "  The  Sym- 
bolical Meaning  of  Salt,"  in  The  Sunday  School  Times  for  April  28,  1894. 


BIBLE  SUMMIT  OF  TREACHERY  1 1 3 

in  Da  Vinci's  famous  painting  of  the  Last  Supper, 
where  Judas  Iscariot  is  represented  as  having  over- 
turned the  salt-cellar.1  And  even  among  English- 
speaking  peoples  the  spilling  of  salt  between  two  per- 
sons is  said  to  threaten  a  quarrel ;  as  though  they  had 
already  broken  friendship. 

Gayton,  describing  two  friends  (who  were  proof  even 
against  this  ill  sign),  says  : 

"  I  have  two  friends  of  either  sex,  which  do 
Eat  little  salt,  or  none,  yet  are  friends  too ; 
Of  both  which  persons  I  can  truly  tell, 
They  are  of  patience  most  invincible, — 
When  out  of  temper  no  mischance  at  all 
Can  put, — no,  not  if  towards  them  the  salt  should  fall."  2 

In  both  the  Old  Testament  and  the  New  faithless- 
ness to  a  formal  covenant  is  reckoned  a  crime  of 
peculiar  enormity  as  distinct  from  any  ordinary  trans- 
gression of  a  specific  law.  Transgressing  a  covenant 
with  the  Lord  is  counted  on  the  part  of  Israel  much 
the  same  as  worshiping  the  gods  of  the  heathen.  This 
is    shown    in   repeated    instances    in    the   Old  Testa- 

1  It  has  indeed  been  questioned  whether  the  overturned  salt-cellar  in 
Da  Vinci's  picture,  as  shown  in  many  an  engraving  of  it,  was  in  the  original 
painting,  as  it  is  not  to  be  seen  there  now.  But  it  would  seem  clear  that 
the  copy  of  this  painting  by  Da  Vinci's  pupil,  Marco  d'Oggoni,  in  the 
Brera,  shows  the  overturned  salt-cellar,  while  the  original  painting  has 
had  several  retouchings  and  renovations.  (See  Notes  and  Queries,  6th 
Series,  Vol.  X.,  p.  92  f.) 

2  Thistleton  Dyer's  Domestic  Folk- Lore,  p.  104. 


114  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

ment.1  In  the  New  Testament,  Paul  includes  amonsf 
the  grossest  evil-doers  of  paganism  those  who  are 
"  filled  with  all  unrighteousness,  wickedness,  covet- 
ousness,  maliciousness;  full  of  envy,  murder,  strife, 
deceit,  malignity  ;  whisperers,  backbiters,  hateful  to 
God,"  and  so  down  to  "  covenant-breakers,"  and 
those  "without  natural  affection,"  as  among  the  lowest 
and  worst  of  all.2  This  idea  shows  itself  continually 
in  records  and  traditions,  sacred  and  secular. 

1  Gen.  17  :  14;  Deut.  17  :  2-7;  Josh.  7  :  11-15  ;  Judg.  2  :  20-23; 
2  Kings  18  :  ii,  12  ;  Psa.  55  :  19-21  ;  Isa.  24  :  5,  6 ;  Jer.  11  :  9-11 ;  34  : 
17-20;  Hosea  6  :  4-7  ;  8  :  1. 

8  Rom.  1  :  31. 


XII 
SUBSTITUTE  TOGETHER  WITH   REALITY 


XII 

SUBSTITUTE  TOGETHER  WITH  REALITY 

Primarily  it  is  the  blood,  as  the  life,  of  two  persons 
entering  into  a  covenant  with  each  other  and  with  the 
Author  of  life,  that  is  the  nexus  of  the  enduring  cove- 
nant.1 Secondarily,  it  is  the  blood,  or  life,  of  a  sub- 
stitute victim  offered  as  a  sacrifice  to  God,  or  to  the 
gods,  that  is  accepted  as  such  a  nexus, — the  blood 
being  shared  by  the  contracting  parties,  or  being 
poured  out  as  an  oblation  to  God,  and  the  flesh  being 
eaten  conjointly  by  the  parties  covenanting.2 

Yet,  again,  wine  is  accepted  as  representing  blood. 
This  is  not  only  because  wine  resembles  blood  in 
appearance,  and  is  called  in  the  Bible  record  the 
"blood  of  the  grape,"3  but  because  wine  is  actu- 
ally deemed,  by  many  primitive  peoples,  real  blood, 
and  is  supposed  to  affect  its  users  as  it  does  because 
it  represents  the  spirit,  or  life,  of  the  divinity  whose 
blood  it  is.4    On  this  point  Frazer  calls  attention  to 

1  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  5-86 ;    Threshold  Covenant,  pp.  193-202. 
2  Gen.  4  :  2-5  ;  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  134-136. 
3  Gen.  49  :  11 ;   Deut.  32  :  14  ;   Eccles.  39  :  26  ;  50  :  15  ;  1  Mace.  6  :  34  ; 
Blood  Covenant,  p.  191.  4  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  139-142. 

117 


Il8  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

the  primitive  views  of  Egyptians,  Arabians,  Aztecs, 
and  others,  citing  authorities  from  Plutarch  to  Robert- 
son Smith.1 

He  says,  for  example  :  "  We  are  informed  by  Plu- 
tarch that  of  old  the  Egyptian  kings  neither  drank 
wine  nor  offered  it  in  libations  to  the  gods,  because 
they  held  it  to  be  the  blood  of  beings  who  had  once 
fought  against  the  gods,  the  vine  having  sprung  from 
their  rotting  bodies  ;  and  the  frenzy  of  intoxication 
was  explained  by  the  supposition  that  the  drunken 
man  was  filled  with  the  blood  of  the  enemies  of  the 
gods.  The  Aztecs  regarded  pulque,  or  the  wine  of  the 
country,  as  bad,  on  the  account  of  the  wild  deeds  which 
men  did  under  its  influence.  But  these  wild  deeds 
were  believed  to  be  the  acts,  not  of  the  drunken  man, 
but  of  the  wine  god  by  whom  he  was  possessed  and  in- 
spired. .  .  .  Thus  it  appears  that,  on  the  primitive  view, 
intoxication,  or  the  inspiration  produced  by  wine,  is 
exactly  parallel  to  the  inspiration  produced  by  drink- 
ing the  blood  of  animals.2  The  soul  or  life  is  in  the 
blood,  and  wine  is  the  blood  of  the  vine.  .  .  .  Who- 
ever drinks  wine  drinks  the  blood,  and  so  receives 
into  himself  the  soul  or  spirit  of  the  god  of  the  vine." 

Naturally,   a   substitute    or    representative    of    the 

1  Frazer's  Golden  Bough,  II.,  184  f. 
2  Comp.  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  114,  139-147. 


WINE  AND   SALT,    BREAD  AND  FLESH   II9 

original,  or  real,  nexus  of  a  covenant,  came  to  stand 
for  the  primary  article  with  such  prominence  in  the 
popular  mind  that  it  would  be  deemed  an  essential, 
not  only  when  the  real  was  lacking,  but  while  the  real 
was  actually  present.  Therefore  we  find  libations  of 
wine  accompanying  actual  blood,  in  sacrifices,1  as  well 
as  used  in  substitution  for  it ;  so  also  of  other  substi- 
tutes, such  as  saffron  water,  milk,  and  coffee,  at  other 
times.2 

As  salt  represents  blood  and  life,  quite  naturally 
salt  is  employed  in  sacrifices,  not  only  where  there 
is  no  blood  or  life,  but  also  where  there  is.  And 
this  accounts  for  the  prominence  of  salt  in  sacrifices, 
and  elsewhere,  where  blood  or  life  is  essential  as  a 
fitting  offering,  and  as  a  bond  of  union.3  Both  wine 
and  salt  as  substitutes  for  blood  are  frequently  used 
together,  as  though  one  alone  were  not  sufficient.4 

Similarly,  bread  is  a  recognized  representative  of 
flesh.  It  is  so  understood  in  sacred  and  secular  records 
and  traditions.  When  Jesus  spoke  of  bread  as  his 
flesh,  and  as  his  body,5  and  of  the  fruit  of  the  vine  as  his 

1  Exod.  29 :  40 ;   Lev.  23  :  12,  13  ;  Num.  15  :  5,  10 ;  28  :  14,  etc. ;  Blood 
Covenant,  pp.  63-65.  2  Blood  Covenant,  pp.77,  346"35o. 

3  Herodotus,  Plutarch,  and  Pliny,  cited  in  Becker's  Charicles,p.  330. 
4  See  pp.  83  f.,  92,  supra;  also  Frazer's  Golden  Bough,  II.,  67-70. 

5  Comp.  Matt.  26  :  26-28 ;    Mark  14  :  22-24  '<    Luke  22  :  19,  20  ;    1  Cor. 
11  :  23-25. 


120  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

blood,  he  used  terms  that  in  his  day,  and  earlier,  were 
known  in  popular  thought  as  representing  the  truth 
at  the  basis  of  the  covenant  by  which  two  became  one 
in  a  merged  common  life.1  Yet  while  bread  was  an 
accepted  substitute  for  flesh,  it  was  much  used  as  an 
accompaniment  of  flesh  2  in  sacrificial  feasts.  Thus 
bread  and  salt  as  recognized  substitutes  for  flesh  and 
blood  came  to  be  commonly  used  even  where  real 
flesh  and  blood  were  the  main  factors  in  the  sacrifice. 
Substitutes  for  bread,  such  as  honey  and  flour  or  meal, 
were,  as  already  shown,  also  used  in  connection  with 
bread.  Hence  it  is  not  unnatural  to  find  salt  as  blood 
accompanying  blood  itself.  This  is  entirely  in  accord 
with  primitive  thought  and  customs  generally. 

1  Blood  Covenant,  pp.  171-184. 
2  Ibid. ;  Gen.  18  :  1-8  ;  31  :  54  ;  Lev.  7  :  11-14  ;  23  :  15-20,  etc. 


XIII 
ADDED  TRACES  OF  THE  RITE 


XIII 

ADDED  TRACES  OF  THE  RITE 

On  the  occasion  of  a  sacred  alliance  between  clans, 
or  in  a  treaty  of  peace  at  the  close  of  a  war,  among 
the  Kookies  of  India,  there  is  a  formal  appeal  to  the 
gods,  in  which  salt  has  an  important  part.  A  dhar,  or 
short  sword,  is  placed  on  the  ground  between  the  two 
parties.  On  it,  as  on  an  altar,  "  are  arranged  rice, 
salt,  earth,  fire,  and  a  tiger's  tooth.  The  party  swear- 
ing takes  the  dhar  and  puts  the  blade  between  his 
teeth,  and,  biting  it,  says,  '  May  I  be  cut  with  the 
dhar  in  war  and  in  the  field ;  may  rice  and  salt  fail 
me,  my  crops  wither,  and  I  die  of  hunger ;  may  fire 
burn  all  my  worldly  possessions,  and  the  tiger  devour 
me,  if  I  am  not  faithful ! '  "  l 

Among  the  Battas,  in  Sumatra,  the  more  solemn 
form  of  their  oath  is,  "  May  my  harvest  fail,  my  cattle 
die,  and  may  I  never  taste  salt  again,  if  I  do  not  speak 
the  truth."  2 

1  Stewart,  in  Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  XXIV.,  641, 
cited  in  Spencer's  Descriptive  Sociology,  V.,  39. 

2  Wooldridge's  trans,  of  Bunge's  Physiological  and  Pathological  Chem- 
istry, p.  126. 

123 


124  THE  COVENANT  OE  SALT 

Among  the  Dyaks  of  Borneo,  when  a  question 
arises  between  disputants  for  which  there  is  no  ordinary 
mode  of  settlement,  each  litigant  is  given  a  lump  of 
salt,  which  the  two  drop  into  water  simultaneously, 
and  he  whose  lump  dissolves  soonest  is  adjudged  the 
loser.1 

In  the  Kenyah  tribe  in  Borneo,  the  ceremony  of 
naming  a  child  is  made  much  of.  Guests  assemble 
on  the  occasion.  After  the  more  private  ceremony, 
participated  in  by  a  favored  few,  every  guest  present 
is  given  a  package  of  salt  and  some  ginger  root,  as 
wedding-cake  is  given  in  many  lands,  for  a  souvenir 
of  the  occasion.2 

A  custom  among  Slavic  peoples  of  presenting  bread 
and  salt  to  a  ruler  at  the  threshold  of  his  domain,  as 
he  comes  on  a  visit,  would  seem  to  combine  the  two 
ideas  of  hospitality  and  of  worship.  When  the  Em- 
peror of  Russia  visits  one  of  his  provinces,  or  subject 
cities,  he  is  met  at  its  threshold  by  its  representative 
rulers,  as  his  loyal  subjects,  with  bread  and  salt  served 
on  a  golden  or  a  silver-gilt  placque.  In  the  Winter 
Palace  of  St.  Petersburg  there  are  hundreds  of  these 
suspended  over  the  doorways  and  on  the  walls,  which 

1  Koningswarter,  op.  cit.,  p.  202,  cited  in  Henry  C.  Lea's  Superstition 
and  Force,  p.  257. 

3  On  the  testimony  of  Dr.  W.  H.  Furness,  3d. 


IN  RUSSIA   AND  ROUMANIA  125 

placques  were  thus  presented  to  different  emperors 
on  the  occasion  of  such  visits. 

When  the  Grand  Duke  Alexis  visited  America  in 
1872,  he  was  received  in  this  way  by  the  wife  of  the 
Russian  Minister  at  Washington.  "As  the  Grand 
Duke  entered  the  Legation,  Madame  de  Catacazy 
carried  a  silver  salver  on  which  was  placed  a  round 
loaf  of  plain  black  bread,  on  the  top  of  which  was  im- 
bedded a  golden  salt-cellar."  1  This  was  obviously 
more  than  a  symbol  of  welcome  to  the  home  of  the 
embassy.  The  Grand  Duke  came  as  a  ruler  and  lord 
to  his  own,  and  his  own  received  him  loyally,  with 
symbols  of  reverent  submission.  It  was  more  like  the 
threshold  covenant  of  the  East,  when  blood  is  poured 
out  from  an  offered  body  at  the  doorway  of  a  house, 
as  one  who  would  be  honored  as  well  as  welcomed 
comes  in. 

Some  years  later  there  was  an  account  in  the  Lon- 
don Court  Journal  of  the  making  in  Paris  of  an  ornate 
golden  dish  for  a  similar  use  in  Roumania.  The 
burghers  of  Bucharest  were  arranging  to  present  on 
this  dish  bread  and  salt  to  Princess  Marie  of  Edin- 
burgh, when  she  should  make  her  first  entrance  into 
their  city  as  their  future  queen.     The  dish  was  of  gold 

1  Perley's  Reminiscences  of  Sixty  Years  in  the  National  Metropolis,  II., 
277. 


126  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

worked  in  a  purely  Renaissance  design,  its  edge  being 
an  openwork  pattern  of  interlaced  ears  of  corn  and 
branches  of  laurel.  In  the  center  was  the  salt-cellar, 
shaped  like  an  open  tulip,  and  resting  upon  four 
graceful  stalks. 

In  the  days  of  Queen  Elizabeth  of  England  it  was 
a  custom  of  officials  of  the  palace  to  rub  bread  and 
salt  on  the  plates  of  the  dining-table  before  each  royal 
meal.1 

Among  the  Kookies  of  the  Hill  Tribes  in  India, 
"  whenever  they  send  any  message  of  consequence  to 
each  other,  they  always  put  in  the  hand  of  the  bearer 
of  it  a  small  quantity  of  salt,  to  be  delivered  with  the 
message  as  expressive  of  its  importance." 2  This 
would  seem  to  indicate  a  life-and-death  matter  in  the 
message. 

An  old  English  custom  of  having  a  salt-cellar  at  a 
certain  point  on  the  family  table,  and  of  seating  those 
present  above  or  below  it,  gave  rise  to  the  phrase 
"sitting  below  the  salt"  as  indicative  of  an  inferior 
position  at  the  household  table.  As  salt  was  a  sym- 
bol of  hospitality  and  of  covenanted  union,  he  who 
was  within  the  scope  of  salt-sharing  at  a  table  was  in 

1  Agnes  Strickland,  Queens  of  England  (Students'  Edition),  p.  403. 

2  Macrae,  in  Asiatic  Researches,  VII.,  188  ;  cited  in  Spencer's  Descrip- 
tive Sociology,  V.  25. 


AFTER  A   FRESHMAN,  SALT  127 

a  very  different  position  from  one  who  was  outside 
of  it 

A  reference  to  this  custom  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  in 
his  "Tales  of  My  Landlord,"  in  the  first  quarter  of 
the  nineteenth  century,  provoked  much  discussion, 
and  doubt  was  expressed  as  to  the  existence  of  the 
custom  in  olden  time.  But  abundant  evidence  was 
produced  as  to  its  veritableness.1  An  old  English 
ballad  was  cited,  in  which  one  said  sneeringly  to  his 
inferior : 

••  Thou  art  a  carle  mean  of  degree, 
Ye  salte  doth  stand  twain  me  and  thee  ; 
But  an  thou  hadst  been  of  ane  gentyl  strayne, 
I  wold  have  bitten  my  gant2  aganie." 

And  one  of  Bishop  Hall's  Satires,  in  1597,  was 
instanced  as  saying : 

"A  gentle  squire  would  gladly  entertaine 
Into  his  house  some  trencher  chaplaine  ; 
Some  willing  man  that  might  instruct  his  sons, 
And  that  would  stande  to  good  conditions. 
First,  that  he  lie  upon  the  truckle-bed, 
Whiles  his  young  maister  lieth  o'  er  his  head. 
Second,  that  he  do,  on  no  default, 
Ever  presume  to  sit  above  the  salt" 

It  was  a  custom  in  Oxford  University  to  give  salt  to 
a  student  who  had  concluded  his  course  as  a  "  fresh- 
man," and  was  finding  admission  into  the  company 

1  See  Blackwood's  Magazine,  Vol.  I.,  No.  I,  pp.  33-35 ;  132-134;  349- 
352 ;  579-582.  2  Gant ;  that  is,  glove. 


128  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

of  maturer,  or  Salter,  students  or  sophisters.  Drink- 
ing salt  and  water,  or  salt  and  beer,  was  a  part  of  this 
ceremony.  It  was  called  "  salting  a  freshman,"  or 
"  college  salting."  x 

A  series  of  plates,  illustrative  of  certain  student 
ceremonies  at  Strassburg  University  was  published  in 
1666.  "The  last  [of  these]  represents  the  giving  of 
the  salt, — which  a  person  is  holding  on  a  plate  in  his 
left  hand,  and  with  his  right  hand  is  about  to  put  a 
pinch  of  it  upon  the  tongue  of  each  becanus,  or  fresh- 
man. A  glass,  probably  holding  wine,  is  standing 
near  him.      Underneath  is  the  following  couplet : 

« '  Sal  Sophies  gustate,  bibatis  vinaque  lata, 
Augeat  immensus  vos  in  utrisque  Deus  /  "  2 

In  Hungary,  at  a  wedding,  there  are  customs  that 
give  solemn  emphasis  to  the  truth  that  two  lives  are 
newly  made  one  in  a  sacred  covenant.  The  cere- 
mony is  presided  over  by  the  Vajda,  or  chief  ruler, 
rather  than  by  any  Christian  ecclesiastic.  He  stands 
with  his  back  to  a  blazing  fire  as  the  primitive  altar.3 
When  his  address  is  concluded,  an  earthen  vessel  is 
dashed  to  pieces  as  a  symbol  of  their  former  life  now 
ended.     Then   the  bridal   couple  are  sprinkled  with 

1  See  Notes  and  Queries,  First  Series,  I.,  261.  2  Ibid.,  I.,  492. 

3  Threshold  Covenant,  pp.  22  f.,  39  ff.,  etc. 


AMONG  HUNGARIAN  GYPSIES  1 2g 

salt  and  brandy,  doubly  standing  for  blood  on  the 
threshold  of  their  married  life.1 

Bread  and  salt  seem  to  have  a  peculiar  sacredness 
among  the  Hungarian  gypsies.  This  incident,  from  a 
gypsy  camp,  is  given  in  a  Hungarian  newspaper  :  A 
gypsy  who  had  lost  his  cash  informed  his  leader  of  the 
fact,  and  at  once  an  order  was  issued  for  its  restoration. 
The  money  not  appearing,  the  gypsy  chief  bound 
two  poles  into  the  form  of  a  cross,  and  fixed  one  end 
in  the  ground.  On  the  top  of  the  cross  he  fastened 
a  piece  of  bread,  and  sprinkled  it  with  salt.  Each 
member  of  the  band  was  then  called  to  swear  upon 
this  symbol  that  he  had  not  committed  the  theft.  All 
stood  the  test,  until  the  last  one,  an  old  woman,  came 
forward.  As  she  was  about  to  take  the  oath,  she 
turned  pale,  put  her  hand  in  her  pocket,  and  brought 
out  the  stolen  money.  She  was  then  soundly  beaten, 
and  kicked  out  of  camp.2 

The  primitive  idea  that  the  sovereign  properly  con- 
trols salt  as  a  source  or  means  of  life,  and  that  a  gift 
of  salt  from  the  sovereign  lays  a  new  obligation  on 
the  recipient,  as  illustrated  in  the  days  of  Cyrus  and 
Darius,3  shows  itself  down  to  our  own  day.      In  the 

1  Martyrdotn  of  an  Empress,  p.  138  f. 
2  See  quotation  from  the  Pester  Lloyd,  in  Journal  of  the  Gypsy  Folk- 
lore Society,  copied  in  "  The  Journal  of  American  Folk-lore,"  Vol.  II., 
No.  S,  p.  140.  3  See  p.  20,  supra. 


130  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

days  of  Arabi  Pasha,  the  Khedive  of  Egypt  desired  to 
raise  a  sum  of  money,  at  a  time  when  the  people  were 
exceptionally  poor  in  consequence  of  excessive  taxa- 
tion and  the  rigors  of  a  recent  famine.  Instead  of 
relying  on  the  ordinary  and  obnoxious  tax  collectors, 
the  Khedive  resorted  to  the  pressure  of  the  "  fidelity 
to  salt  idea." 

Salt,  as  a  gift,  or  as  an  appeal,  from  the  govern- 
ment supply,  was  sent  to  every  native  house.  Four 
pecks  of  salt  to  every  two  males  in  the  house  was  the 
average  amount.  The  salt  was  laid,  by  a  government 
official,  upon  the  threshold  of  the  house,  early  in  the 
morning,  before  the  inmates  arose.  Of  course,  any 
person  stepping  over  that  salted  threshold  was  brought 
anew  into  a  covenant  with  the  giver.1  Later  in  the 
day  Egyptian  soldiers  called  at  every  house  to  receive 
what  the  inmates  would  give  in  return.  The  appeal 
was  irresistible.  It  was  not  like  an  ordinary  tax,  to 
be  evaded  or  resisted  if  possible.  All  would  do  what 
they  could.  The  least  that  any  could  think  of  return- 
ing was  the  usual  price  of  the  salt.  Those  who  could 
afford  more  were  glad  to  show  their  fidelity  and  loyalty 
in  a  corresponding  liberality.2 

1  See  Threshold  Covenant,  pp.  3-25. 
2  This  was  told  to  the  author  by  an  Oriental  who  was  residing  in  Egypt 
at  the  time. 


XIV 
A  SAVOR  OF  LIFE  OR  OF  DEATH 


XIV 
A  SAVOR  OF  LIFE  OR  OF  DEATH 

That  which  is  a  means  of  life  in  one  instance  may 
be  a  means  of  death  in  another.  A  breath  that  might 
kindle  a  tiny  spark  into  a  living  blaze  might  also  ex- 
tinguish a  quivering  flame.  The  breeze  that  gives  life 
to  fire  in  one  case  gives  death  to  fire  in  the  other. 
And  fire  itself  proves  death  to  that  which  is  perish- 
able, while  it  gives  added  value  to  that  which  is  puri- 
fied in  the  furnace  flames.  Salt,  like  fire,  is  a  symbol 
both  of  life  and  of  death.  In  different  connections  it 
is  a  preserver  and  a  destroyer.  "  To  the  one  a  savor 
from  death  unto  death  ;  to  the  other  a  savor  from  life 
unto  life."  l 

Salt  is  spoken  of  in  the  Bible  as  destructive  of 
vegetable  life,  and  a  barrier  against  new  animal  life. 
A  piece  of  ground  sown  or  strewed  with  salt  is 
deemed  dead  land  :  "  It  is  not  sown,  nor  beareth, 
nor  any  grass  groweth  therein."2  When  Abimelech 
captured  Shechem,  "  he  beat  down  the  city  and  sowed 

1  2  Cor.  2  :  16.  2  Deut.  29  :  23. 

133 


134  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

it  with  salt."  !     The  Psalmist,  speaking  of  the  power 
and  ways  of  God,  declares  : 

"  He  turneth  rivers  into  a  wilderness, 
And  wmtersprings  into  a  thirsty  ground  ; 
A  fruitful  land  into  a  salt  desert, 
For  the  wickedness  of  them  that  dwell  therein."  2 

The  prophet  Jeremiah  says  of  one  who  departs  from 
God's  service  that  he  "  shall  inhabit  the  parched 
places  in  the  wilderness,  a  salt  land  and  not  in- 
habited." 3  Ezekiel,  foretelling  a  curse  on  the  land  of 
the  Jews,  says:  "The  marshes  thereof  shall  not  be 
healed  ;  they  shall  be  given  up  to  salt."  4  And  Zepha- 
niah  declares  that  Moab  shall  become  "  a  possession 
of  nettles,  and  salt-pits,  and  a  perpetual  desolation."  5 
Because  there  can  be  no  fertility  for  new  vegetable 
life,  there  is  no  room  or  hope  for  new  animal  lite  for 
land  thus  sown  with  salt  and  thus  permanently  sterile. 
The  one  great  body  of  water  that  is  called  the  Dead 
Sea  is  the  saltest  sea  in  the  world.  Five  times  the 
proportion  of  salt  in  the  ocean  is  found  in  this  inland 
sea  of  salt.  "  No  fish  can  exist  in  the  waters,  nor  is 
it  proved  that  any  low  forms  of  life  have  been  dis- 
covered there."  6  An  ancient  legend  declared  that 
birds  could  not  even  fly  over  its  waters,  because  of 

1  Judg.  9  :  45.  2  Psa.  107  :  33,  34.  3Jer.  17  :  6. 

4  Ezek.  47  :  11.  5  Zeph.  2  :  9. 

6  George  Adam  Smith's  Historical  Geography  of  the  Holy  Land,  p.  502. 


SALT  WATER   MOCKING    THIRST  1 35 

the  curse  from  heaven  on  its  briny  depths.1  Yet  this 
doomed  and  dead  sea  of  salt  is  a  source  of  life  to  man 
in  its  exhaustless  supply  of  salt  for  his  use.  Pre- 
eminently is  this  salt  of  the  Dead  Sea  a  savor  of  life 
and  of  death. 

The  salt  of  the  ocean  is  the  world's  treasure.  With- 
out it  the  greater  portion  of  the  earth's  inhabitants 
would  perish  for  lack  of  what  vivifies  and  preserves 
animal  life.  Yet  because  of  the  salt  in  the  ocean  the 
very  water,  which  man  and  beast  must  have  or  perish 
of  thirst,  is  useless  to  both  man  and  beast.  The  cry 
in  the  "Ancient  Mariner"  is  the  cry  of  the  human, 
always,  on  the  ocean's  surface : 

"Water,  water,  everywhere, 

And  all  the  boards  did  shrink : 
Water,  water,  everywhere, 
Nor  any  drop  to  drink." 

Water,  which  is  the  gift  of  God  to  the  thirsty  soul, 
mocks  the  thirsty  soul  when  it  brings  with  it  salt, 
which  is  the  representative  of  life.  Salt  in  water  is  a 
savor  of  death  unto  death,  while  salt  and  water  are 
also  a  savor  of  life  unto  life. 

While  salt  as  the  equivalent  of  life  is  a  symbol  of 
permanency,  it  becomes,  as  the  equivalent  of  death,  a 
symbol  of  doom  and  destruction.     Thus  the  prophet 

1  Tacitus,  Hist.,  v.  6,  cited  as  above, 


136  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

Isaiah,  speaking  of  his  salvation  as  sure  and  perma- 
nent, says  :  "Lift  up  your  eyes  to  the  heavens,  and  look 
upon  the  earth  beneath  :  for  the  heavens  shall  vanish 
away  [literally,  shall  be  salted]  like  smoke,  and  the 
earth  shall  wax  old  like  a  garment,  and  they  that 
dwell  therein  shall  die  in  like  manner  [or,  like  gnats]  : 
but  my  salvation  shall  be  forever,  and  my  righteous- 
ness shall  not  be  abolished."  l 

Life  is  in  itself  the  destroyer  of  death,  as  light  is  the 
destroyer  of  darkness.  Hence  that  which  makes  anew 
does  away  with  that  which  was  of  old.  When,  there- 
fore, salt  or  fire  is  spoken  of  as  the  destroyer  of  that 
which  is  not  worthy  of  preservation,  it  is  not  to  be 
wondered  at  that  this  power  is  possessed  by  an  ele- 
ment that  purifies  and  revivifies  through  the  process 
of  destruction.  The  ground  of  a  destroyed  and  con- 
demned city  is  guarded  against  a  continuance  of  its 
old  life  of  evil  by  being  sown  with  salt,  which  is  a 
savor  from  life  unto  life  and  from  death  unto  death. 
The  old  heavens  and  the  old  earth  which  vanish  away 
as  by  fire  and  salt,2  are  replaced  by  a  new  heaven  and 
a  new  earth3  which  shall  be  enduring  as  gold  tried  in 
the  fire,  and  as  a  covenant  of  salt  forever. 

There  is  a  sense  in  which  that  which  is  devoted  to 


1  Isa.  51  :  6.  2  Isa.  34  :  4  ;  2  Peter  3  :  10 

3  Isa.  51  :  16  ;  65 :  17 ;  66 :  22 ;  2  Peter  3  :  13. 


12. 


BLOOD  ATONED  FOR   BY  BLOOD  1 37 

God  is  thereby  forbidden  to  the  use  of  man.  Thus 
land  sown  with  salt  may  be  counted  as  devoted  and 
as  destroyed,  devoted  to  God  and  destroyed  for  man.1 
The  Hebrew  word  korban  was  applied  to  what  had 
thus  been  dedicated  and  doomed.2 

Blood  also  is  used  in  the  twofold  sense  of  life  and 
of  death,  in  different  connections.  Men  say,  "We 
are  bound  together  by  blood,"  and  "We  are  of  one 
blood,"  and  "Blood  is  thicker  than  water."  They 
say,  also,  "There  is  blood  between  us,"  and  "Spilled 
blood  cannot  be  gathered  up,"  and  "  Blood  is  a  bar- 
rier." Salt,  that  stands  for  blood,  may  similarly  stand 
for  life  or  for  death,  for  peace  or  for  discord.  It  is  an 
old  superstition  that  to  put  salt  on  another's  plate  is 
an  evil  omen.      Hence  the  couplet : 

"  Help  me  to  salt, 
Help  me  to  sorrow  !" 

Yet  even  this  portent  of  ill  luck  may  be  canceled  by 
a  repetition  of  the  act,  helping  to  a  second  portion  of 
salt.3  The  taking  of  blood  that  becomes  a  barrier 
may  be  followed  by  the  taking  of  blood  as  a  bond  of 
union.  Shedding  of  blood  is  atoned  for  by  sharing 
of  blood. 

JSee  Num.  21  :  2,  3. 

2  Mark  7  :  11.  See  the  Rev.  Dr.  Jastrow,  in  The  Sunday  School  Times 
for  April  28,  1894;  a^so  W.  Robertson  Smith's  Religion  of  the  Semites, 
p.  435  ;  also  Nowack,  Lehrb7ich  der  Hebraeischen  Archaologie,  II.,  267. 

3  Henderson's  Folk- Lore  of  the  Northern  Counties,  p.  120.  Thistleton 
Dyer's  Domestic  Folk-Lore,  p.  104  f. 


1 3  8  THE  CO  VENA  NT  OF  SALT 

Even  the  spilling  of  salt,  which  is  so  dreaded  in 
primitive  thought,  may,  it  is  said,  be  rendered  harm- 
less if  the  person  who  was  guilty  of  the  mishap  will 
carefully  gather  up  the  spilled  salt  with  the  blade  of 
a  knife,  and  throw  it  over  his  left  shoulder,  with  an 
appropriate  invocation.1 

It  is  deemed  dangerous  to  give  away  salt  to  a 
stranger ;  for  because  salt  is  as  blood  and  as  life,  one 
must  be  careful  lest  he  put  his  blood  and  his  life  in 
the  power  of  an  enemy.2  Salt  is  essential  to  the 
preservation  of  human  life  ;  at  the  same  time,  salt  is 
the  destruction  of  human  life  if  it  be  in  too  great 
quantity  or  proportion.  Thus  the  seeming  contra- 
diction is  only  in  seeming. 

1  Henderson,  p.  120 ;  Dyer,  p.  104  f. ;  Napier,  p.  139  f. 
2  Henderson,  p.  217. 


XV 
MEANS   OF   A    MERGED    LIFE 


XV 

MEANS  OF  A  MERGED  LIFE 

All  life  is  from  the  Author  and  Source  of  life.  Only 
as  two  persons  become  partakers  of  a  common  life  by 
each  and  both  sharing  in  that  which  is  in  itself  life, 
can  they  become  one  in  the  all-inclusive  Life.  Hav- 
ing life  from  the  Source  of  life,  they  can  merge  their 
common  possession  in  each  other,  and  in  that  com- 
mon Source.  Such  merging  in  a  common  life,  with 
an  appeal  to  and  by  the  approval  of  God,  or  the  gods, 
has  been  the  root-idea  of  covenanting,  in  one  way  or 
another,  from  time  immemorial,  among  all  peoples, 
the  world  over. 

In  primitive  thought,  and  in  a  sense  in  scientific 
fact,  the  blood  is  the  life  and  the  life  is  in  the  blood  ; 
hence  they  who  share  in  each  other's  blood  are  shar- 
ers in  a  merged  and  common  life.  Covenanting  in  this 
way  with  a  solemn  appeal  to  God,  or  to  the  gods,  has 
been  a  mode  of  sacred  union  from  the  earliest  dawn 
of  human  history.  Two  thus  covenanting  are  sup- 
posed to  become  of  one  being  ;  the  one  is  the  other, 

141 


1 42  THE  COVENANT  OF  SALT 

and  the  two  are  one.  Every  form  of  sacrifice,  Jewish, 
Egyptian,  Assyrian,  or  ethnic,  is  in  its  primal  thought 
either  an  evidence  and  a  reminder  of  an  existing  cove- 
nant between  the  offerer  and  the  Deity  approached, 
or  an  appeal  and  an  outreaching  for  a  covenant  to  be 
consummated.1 

Salt  is  counted  as  the  equivalent  of  blood  and  of 
life,  both  in  primitive  thought  and,  in  a  sense,  in  scien- 
tific fact ;  therefore  salt,  like  blood,  has  been  deemed 
a  nexus  of  a  lasting  covenant,  as  nothing  can  be 
which  is  not  life  or  its  equivalent.  Only  as  two  per- 
sons are  sharers  of  a  common  life  can  they  be  sup- 
posed to  have  merged  their  separate  identity  in  that 
dual  union. 

And  so  we  find  that,  in  the  primitive  world's  thought, 
shared  salt  has  preciousness  and  power  because  of 
what  it  represents  and  of  what  it  symbolizes,  as  well  as 
of  what  it  is.  Salt  stands  for  and  corresponds  with, 
and  it  symbolizes,  blood  and  life.  As  such  it  repre- 
sents the  supreme  gift  from  the  Supreme  Giver. 
Because  of  this  significance  of  salt,  when  made  use 
of  as  the  means  of  a  lasting  union,  the  Covenant  of 
Salt,  as  a  form  or  phase  of  the  Blood  Covenant,  is  a 
covenant  fixed,  permanent,  and  unchangeable,  endur- 
ing forever. 

1  Compare,  for  example,  Psa.  50  :  5,  16  ;  Hos.  1  :  10 ;  Rom.  9  :  26. 


SUPPLEMENT 


THE  TEN   COMMANDMENTS  AS  A 
COVENANT  OF  LOVE 


THE  TEN  COMMANDMENTS  AS  A 
COVENANT  OF  LOVE 

All  of  us  are  familiar  with  the  Ten  Commandments, 
given  from  God  on  two  tables,  or  tablets,  of  stone,  to 
the  people  of  Israel  at  Mount  Sinai.1  But  not  all  of 
us  are  accustomed  to  think  of  these  Ten  Command- 
ments as  ten  separate  clauses  of  a  loving  covenant 
between  God  and  his  chosen  people,  recorded  on 
stone  tablets  for  their  permanent  preservation.  Yet 
these  witnessing  tablets  are  repeatedly  called  in  the 
Bible  "the  tables  of  the  covenant,"  2  and  " tables  of 
testimony,"  3  not  the  tables  of  the  commandments  ; 
while  the  chest  or  casket  which  contained  them  is 
called  "the  ark  of  the  covenant,"4  and  "the  ark  of 
the  testimony,"  5  not  the  ark  of  the  commandments. 

There  is  obviously  a  world-wide  difference  between 

i  Exod.  20  :  1-17  ;  Deut.  5  :  1-22.  2  Deut.  9  :  15. 

3  Exod.  32  :  15  ;  34  :  29. 

*  Num.  14  :  44  ;  Deut.  10  :  8  ;  31  :  9,  25,  26  ;  Josh.  3  :  3,  6,  8,  11,  14,  17  ; 
4  :  7,  9,  18  ;  6  :  6,  8  ;  8  :  33  ;  Judg.  20  :  27  ;  1  Sam.  4:3-5;  2  Sam.  15  :  24  ; 
1  Kings  3  :  15  ;  6  :  19  ;  8  :  i,  6  ;  1  Chron.  15  :  25,  26,  28,  29  ;  16  :  6,  37  ; 
17  :  1  ;  22  :  19  ;  28  :  2,  18  ;  2  Chron.  5  :  2,  7  ;  Jer.  3  :  16. 

5  Exod.  25  :  22  ;  26  :  33,  34  ;  3°  :  6>  a6  >  31  :  7  ',  39  :  35  I  4°  :  3.  5.  2I  I 
Num.  4  :  5  I  7  :  89  ;  Josh.  4  :  16. 

145 


1 46  THE    TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

a  loving  covenant  that  binds  two  parties  to  each  other 
in  mutual  affection  and  fidelity,  and  a  series  of 
arbitrary  commandments  enjoined  by  a  sovereign 
upon  his  subjects  ;  between  a  compact  of  union,  hav- 
ing its  statement  of  promises  on  the  one  hand  and  of 
responsibilities  on  the  other,  and  an  instrument  that 
asserts  the  rights  of  the  ruler  and  defines  the  duties  of 
the  ruled.  In  our  estimate  of  the  Decalogue  we  have 
made  too  much  of  the  law  element,  and  too  little  of 
the  element  of  love.  As  a  consequence  it  has  not 
been  easy  for  us  to  see  how  it  is  that  God's  law  is 
love,  and  that  love  is  the  fulfilling  of  God's  law.  But 
the  Ten  Commandments  are  a  simple  record  of  God's 
loving  covenant  with  his  people,  and  they  are  not  the 
arbitrary  commandings  of  God  to  his  subjects.  They 
indicate  the  inevitable  limits  within  which  God  and 
his  people  can  be  in  loving  union,  rather  than  declare 
the  limits  of  dutiful  obedience  on  the  part  of  those 
who  would  be  God's  faithful  subjects.  A  close 
examination  of  the  Decalogue  will  show  that  this  is 
its  nature  and  scope. 

It  must  be  borne  in  mind,  in  our  Bible  reading,  that 
the  Bible  was  originally  written  by  Orientals  for 
Orientals,  and  that  it  is  to  be  looked  at  in  the  light  of 
Oriental  manners  and  customs,  and  Oriental  modes  of 
speech,  in   order  to  its  fullest  understanding.      Hence 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  147 

when  we  find  the  term  "  covenant,"  or  the  term 
"commandment,"  in  the  Bible,  we  are  to  inquire  into 
the  Oriental  meaning  of  that  term,  so  that  we  may 
know  the  sense  in  which  it  was  employed  by  the 
Bible  writers. 

Now  a  "covenant"  among  Orientals  is,  and  always 
has  been,  a  sacred   compact  binding  two  parties   in 
loving  agreement.      Oriental  covenants   are  made  in 
various  forms  and  by  various  ceremonies.     The  most 
sacred  of  all  forms  of  covenanting  in  the  East  is  by 
two    persons    commingling    their    own    blood,   by  its 
drinking  or  by  its  inter-transfusing,  in  order  that  they 
may  come  into  a  communion  of  very  life.1     Two  per- 
sons who  wish  to  become  as  one  in  a  loving  blood- 
friendship  will  open  each  a  vein  in  his  own  arm,  and 
allow  the  blood  to  flow  into  a  common  vessel,  from 
which    both    parties   will    drink    of  the    commingled 
blood.      Or,  again,  each   person   will   open   a  vein   in 
one   of  his   hands,  and    the   bleeding  hands  will   be 
clasped  together  so  that  the  blood  from  the  one  shall 
find   its   way  into   the  veins   of  the   other.       Or,  yet 
again,  the  two  will  share  together  the  substitute  blood 
of  a  sacred  animal.      Usually,  in  such  a  case,  a  written 
compact  is   signed   by  each  party  and  given  to  the 
other,  with  the  stamp  of  the  writer's  blood  upon  it  as 

1  See  The  Blood  Covenant. 


148  THE    TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

a  part  of  the  ceremony  of  covenanting  ;  and  this  writ- 
ing is  carefully  encased  in  a  small  packet  or  casket, 
and  guarded  by  its  holder  as  his  very  life.  It  is  in  the 
light  of  such  customs  as  this  that  we  are  to  read  of 
the  sacred  covenant  entered  into  between  God  and 
his  Oriental  people. 

It  was  at  the  foot  of  Mount  Sinai  that  Moses  came 
before  the  people  of  Israel  with  God's  proffer  to  them 
of  a  covenant,  whereby  they  should  bear  his  name 
and  be  known  as  his  people.  "And  he  took  the 
book  of  the  covenant,  and  read  in  the  audience  of  the 
people  :  and  they  said,  All  that  the  Lord  hath  spoken 
will  we  do,  and  be  obedient."  l  Then  it  was  that 
Moses  took  of  substitute  blood  and  divided  it  into  two 
portions,  one  half  to  be  sprinkled  on  the  altar  God- 
ward,  and  the  other  half  to  be  sprinkled  on  the 
people  ;  and  Moses  said  :  "  Behold  the  blood  of  the 
covenant,  which  the  Lord  hath  made  with  you  con- 
cerning all  these  words  " — or,  as  the  margin  of  the 
Revised  Version  has  it,  "upon  all  these  conditions."  2 
Moreover,  we  are  told,  in  the  Epistle  to  the  He- 
brews,3 that  Moses  sprinkled  the  blood  upon  the 
record,  or  book,  of  the  covenant,  as  well  as  upon  the 
people.  It  was  after  this — after  the  breach  and 
the  renewal  of  the  covenant  between  Israel  and  God — 
1  Exod.  24  :  7.  '2  Exod.  24  :  8.  '  Heb.  9  :  19. 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  149 

that  the  stone  tablets  on  which  the  covenant  itself  had 
a  permanent  record  were  encased  in  a  casket,  or  an 
"ark,"  x  which  was  thenceforward  guarded  sacredly  as 
containing  the  charter  of  Israel's  nationality,  the  wit- 
ness, the  evidence,  the  testimony,  of  the  loving  cove- 
nant between  God  and  his  people. 

But  you  may  ask,  Did  not  the  tables  of  stone  bear 
a  record  of  specific  commandments,  rather  than  of 
articles  of  a  covenant  ?  And  are  not  the  words  there 
recorded  specifically  called  in  the  Bible  the  "Ten 
Commandments"?  Look  for  yourselves,  and  see. 
It  is  true  that  our  English  Bible  speaks  of  the  Ten 
Commandments  recorded  on  these  tables  of  stone  ; 
but  the  word  here  translated  "commandments"  is 
more  literally  to  be  rendered  "words,"2  as  indeed  it 
is  given  in  the  margin  of  the  Revised  Version  ;  and  it 
is  applicable  to  any  declaration,  injunction,  or  charge, 
made  by  one  to  another.  It  is  by  no  means  to  be 
understood  as  simply  an  arbitrary  mandate  from  an 
absolute  sovereign  to  his  subjects.  Looking  at  the 
Ten  Commandments  as  a  set  of  moral  laws  covering 
man's  duties  to  God  and  to  his  fellows,  they  seem 
strangely  defective,  when  we  find  among  them  no 
command  to  pray  to  or  to  praise  God,  nor  any  com- 
mand to  give  sympathy  or  assistance  to  man.      But 

1  Exod.  40  :  20.  2  Exod.  34  :  28. 


150  THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

when  we  look  at  them  as  clauses  of  a  loving  covenant, 
indicating  the  scope  and  limits  of  relations  within 
which  a  child  of  God's  duties  God-ward  and  man- 
ward  are  to  be  exercised,  we  find  that  they  are  far- 
reaching  and  all-inclusive.  Looking  at  them  as  the 
tables  of  the  covenant  between  God  and  his  people  in 
the  light  of  Oriental  views  of  covenanting,  we  can  see 
a  great  deal  more  in  the  words  on  those  tables  than 
when  we  look  at  them  as  the  tables  of  the  command- 
ments,— in  the  light  of  our  Western  ideas  of  com- 
mandings. 

A  covenant  involves  the  idea  of  a  twofold  agree- 
ment between  the  parties  making  it  Even  though 
God  himself  be  one  of  the  parties,  he  will  not  refuse 
to  be  explicit  in  his  words  of  covenanting.  And  so 
we  find  it  to  be  in  the  record  on  the  tables  of  the 
covenant  which  were  given  to  Moses  at  Mount  Sinai. 
We  call  the  opening  words  of  that  record  the  "Preface 
to  the  Ten  Commandments;"  but  they  are  more 
properly  God's  covenanting  words  with  his  people. 
"lam  Jehovah  thy  God,  which  brought  thee  out  of 
the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of  the  house  of  bondage."  x 
The  very  name  "Jehovah"  includes  the  idea  of  a 
covenant-making  and  a  covenant-keeping  God.  The 
declaration  of  Jehovah's  eternally  existing  personality 

1  ExocJ.  20  :  3. 


AS  A   COVENANT  OF  LOVE  15  I 

as  Jehovah  is  in  itself  a  covenant  promise,  for  all  time 
to  come,  to  those  who  are  his  covenant  people.  It  is 
as  though  he  were  to  say  :  "  I,  who  was  and  am,  and 
am  to  be,  the  same  yesterday  and  to-day,  yea  and 
forever,  will  be  your  God  unfailingly.  As  I  have 
given  you  a  loving  deliverance  out  of  Egyptian 
bondage,  so  I  am  ever  ready  to  deliver  you  from 
every  evil  that  enthralls  you." 

Man,  when  he  promises  for  the  future,  needs  to 
say,  "I  will  do  ;"  but  God  can  say  nothing  stronger 
than  "I  do,"  or  than  "  I  am."  Thus  the  promise  of 
promises  of  Jesus  to  his  disciples  as  their  ever-present, 
all-sustaining  Lord,  is,  "  Lo,  I  am  with  you  alway  ;  "  ' 
not  "  Lo,  I  will  be"  but  "  Lo,  I  am"  And  so  it  is 
that  God's  covenant  promise  to  Israel,  to  be  their 
loving,  guarding,  and  guiding  God  for  all  time  to 
come,  is  in  the  words  :  "  I  am  Jehovah  thy  God, 
which  brought  thee  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt,  out  of 
the  house  of  bondage."  2  And  this  is  the  promise  of 
"the  party  of  the  first  part,"  as  we  would  say  in 
modern  legal  parlance,  in  this  covenant  between  God 
and  his  people  Israel. 

Then  there  follow  the  covenant  agreements  of 
God's  people,  as  "  the  party  of  the  second  part "  in 
this  loving  compact     As  it  is  God  who  prescribes  or 

1  Matt.  28  :  20.  2  Exod.  20  :  a. 


152  THE    TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

defines  the  terms  on  which  this  covenant  is  to  be 
made,  the  indication  of  those  terms  is  mainly  in  the 
form  of  such  prohibitions  as  will  distinguish  the  people 
of  God  from  other  peoples  about  them,  in  the  bearing 
of  that  people  toward  God's  personality,  toward  God's 
institutions,  and  toward  God's  representatives.  This 
is  all  that  is  needed  in  the  fundamental  articles  of 
covenanting.  The  details  of  specific  duties  may  be 
defined  in  special  enactments  under  the  terms  of  this 
covenant,  or  they  may  be  inferred  from  its  spirit. 

The  first  requirement  is,  that  this  covenanting  God 
shall  be  recognized  as  the  only  God  ;  that  no  other 
god  shall  be  conceded  a  place  in  God's  universe. 
And  this  requirement  is  vital  to  any  such  covenant. 
A  divided  heart  is  no  heart  at  all.  He  who  can  see 
any  other  object  of  love  and  devotion  comparable 
with  the  one  to  whom  he  gives  himself  in  covenant- 
union,  is  thereby  incapacitated  from  a  covenant-union. 
Therefore  it  is  that  this  first  word  of  the  Ten  Words 
of  the  covenant  of  God's  people  with  their  God  is  not 
an  arbitrary  mandate,  but  is  the  simple  expression  of 
a  truth  which  is  essential  to  the  very  existence  of  the 
covenant  as  a  covenant  of  union. 

And  this  principle  is  as  vitally  important  now  as  it 
was  in  the  days  of  Moses.  The  human  heart  is 
always  inclined  to  divide  itself  when   it  ought  to  be 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  153 

undivided.  It  is  reluctant  to  be  wholly  and  always 
true  to  God  alone.  But,  now  as  hitherto,  without 
wholeness  of  heart  a  covenant  of  union  with  God  is 
an  impossibility.  And,  indeed,  the  very  idea  of  other 
gods  is  an  outgrowth  of  man's  sense  of  an  unfitness  to 
be  in  oneness  of  life  with  the  One  God, — in  conse- 
quence of  which  man  seeks  a  lower  divinity  than 
the  supreme  God  as  the  immediate  object  of  his 
worship. 

The  second  requirement  in  this  covenant  of  union 
is,  that  no  material  image  or  representation  of  this 
covenanting  God  shall  be  made  use  of  as  a  help  to  his 
worship  by  his  covenanting  people  ;  that,  as  a  Spirit, 
God  shall  be  worshiped  in  spirit  by  his  people.  Here, 
again,  is  no  arbitrary  mandate,  but  only  the  recogni- 
tion of  a  vital  truth.  Because  God  is  Creator  of  all, 
no  creation  of  God  can  be  like  God.  Because  God  is 
a  Spirit,  the  human  mind  can  best  commune  with 
him  spiritually,  without  having  its  conceptions  of  him 
degraded  by  any  image  or  representation — which  at 
the  best  must  be  wholly  unworthy  of  him. 

In  this  second  requirement,  as  in  the  first,  a  danger 
is  indicated  to  which  the  Israelites  were  peculiarly 
exposed  in  their  day,  and  to  which  all  the  people  of 
God  are  exposed  in  any  day.  In  the  Assyrian,  or 
Chaldean,  home  of  Abraham,  there  was  practically  no 


I  54  THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

image  worship,  but  there  was  a  belief  in  a  plurality  of 
gods.  In  the  Egyptian  home,  from  which  the  Israel- 
ites had  just  come  out,  images  in  great  variety  were 
the  objects  of  worship.  As  the  covenant  people  of 
God,  the  Israelites  were  to  refrain  from  the  polytheism 
of  their  ancestral  home  in  the  far  East,  and  from  the 
grosser  idolatry  of  their  more  recent  home  in  the 
West.  And  so  it  must  be  with  the  people  of  God  at 
all  times  ;  they  must  worship  only  God,  and  they 
must  worship  God  without  any  help  from  a  material 
representation  of  the  object  of  their  worship. 

As  there  is  still  a  temptation  to  give  a  divided 
heart  to  God,  so  there  is  still  a  temptation  to  seek  the 
help  of  some  visible  representation  or  symbol  of 
God's  presence  in  his  worship.  The  Christian  be- 
liever does  not  bow  down  to  an  idol,  but  many  a 
Christian  believer  thinks  that  his  mind  can  be  helped 
upward  in  worship  by  looking  at  some  representation 
of  his  Saviour's  face,  or  at  some  symbol  of  his 
Saviour's  passion.  But  just  because  God  is  infinitely 
above  all  material  representations  and  symbols,  so 
God  can  best  be  apprehended  and  discerned  spirit- 
ually. Anything  coming  between  man's  spirit  and 
God  the  Spirit  is  a  hindrance  to  worship,  and  not  a 
help  to  it.  Suppose  a  young  man  were  watching 
from  a  window  for  his  absent  mother's  return,  with  a 


AS  A   COVENANT  OF  LOVE  155 

wish  to  catch  the  first  glimpse  of  her  approaching 
face.  Would  he  be  wise,  or  foolish,  in  putting  up  a 
photograph  of  his  mother  on  the  window-pane  before 
him,  as  a  help  to  bearing  her  in  mind  as  he  looks  for 
her  coming  ?  As  there  can  be  no  doubt  about  the 
answer  to  that  question,  so  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
we  can  best  come  into  spiritual  communion  with  God 
by  closing  our  ey^s  to  everything  that  can  be  seen 
with  the  natural  eye,  and  opening  the  eyes  of  our 
spirit  to  the  sight  of  God  the  Spirit.  This,  again,  is 
no  arbitrary  requirement  of  God  ;  it  is  in  the  very 
nature  of  his  being  and  of  our  own. 

The  third  requirement  of  this  compact  is,  that  there 
shall  be  no  insincerity  on  the  part  of  God's  covenant 
people  in  their  claiming  and  bearing  his  name,  as  the 
name  of  their  covenanting  God.  This  requirement  is 
not  generally  understood  in  this  light  ;  but  all  the 
facts  in  the  case  go  to  show  that  this  is  its  true  light. 
In  the  Oriental  world,  and  in  the  primitive  world 
everywhere,  one's  name  stands  for  one's  personality  ; 
and  the  right  to  bear  one's  name  or  even  to  call  on 
one  by  his  personal  name,  is  a  proof  of  intimate  rela- 
tion, if  not  of  actual  union,  with  him.  God  was  now 
covenanting  with  this  people  to  be  his  people,  thereby 
authorizing  them  to  bear  his  name,  and  to  be  known 
as  his  representatives.      In  the  very  nature  of  things, 


156  THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

this  laid  upon  them  a  peculiar  obligation  to  bear  his 
name  reverently  and  in  all  sincerity. 

It  is  not  that  God  arbitrarily  commanded  his  people 
to  have  a  care  in  the  speaking  of  his  name,  as  if  he 
were  jealous  of  its  irreverent  mention  ;  but  it  is  that 
he  reminded  them  that  the  coming  into  the  privileges 
of  his  name  was  the  coming  into  the  responsibilities 
of  that  name.  It  was  as  though  Mr.  Moody  were 
taking  a  little  street  waif  into  his  home  to  train  the 
boy  as  his  own  son,  and  were  formally  giving  to  that 
boy  the  right  to  take  and  bear  his  name.  Naturally 
he  might  say  :  "  Understand,  now,  my  boy,  that, 
wherever  you  go,  they'll  say,  '  There  goes  a  young 
Moody.'  Now,  I  value  my  name,  and  I  don't  want  it 
disgraced.  See  to  it  that  you  take  care  of  that  name 
wherever  you  are."  So  God  said  to  his  people  : 
"Thou  shalt  not  take" — shalt  not  assume,  bear, 
carry — "the  name  of  the  Lord  thy  God  in  vain  " — in- 
sincerely, vainly  ;  "for  the  Lord  will  not" — cannot — 
"  hold  him  guiltless  that  taketh  " — claimeth  the  privi- 
leges of — "  his  name  in  vain  " — vainly,  insincerely. 

This  covenant  obligation  also  is  on  us  as  it  was  on 
God's  people  of  old.  As  Christians  we  are  baptized 
into  the  name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy 
Ghost.1     Wherever  we  go,  we  are  counted  as  mem- 

1  Matt.  28  :  19. 


AS  A   COVENANT  OF  LOVE  1 57 

bers  of  God's  family.  His  name  is  on  us,  and  his 
honor  is  in  our  keeping.  Wherefore,  "  let  every  one 
that  nameth  the  name  of  the  Lord" — claimeth  it  as 
his  own  name — "  depart  from  unrighteousness;"1 
and  let  him  never  feel  that  it  is  a  light  or  a  vain  thing 
to  bear  that  name  before  the  world. 

Thus  we  see  that  the  first  three  of  the  ten  require- 
ments of  the  loving  covenant  of  God's  people  with 
their  God  are  simply  the  requirements  to  worship 
God  as  the  only  God,  to  worship  him  in  unhindered 
spirituality,  and  to  worship  him  in  all  sincerity.  These 
three  fundamental  requirements  seem  to  have  been  in 
the  mind  of  our  Lord  Jesus  when  he  said  to  the 
woman  of  Samaria  at  the  well  of  Jacob  :  "  God  " — the 
One  God — "is  a  Spirit:  and  they  that  worship  him 
must  worship  in  spirit  and  truth."  2 

Coming  to  the  fourth  requirement  of  the  loving 
covenant  of  God  and  his  people,  we  find  it  differing  in 
form  from  the  preceding  three  requirements  ;  differing 
also  from  the  form  of  all  but  one  of  those  which 
follow  it.  The  preceding  three  are  in  the  negative 
form  ;  this  is  in  the  affirmative  form,  beginning  with 
the  injunction,  "Remember"  (Keep  in  mind).  Of 
course,  there  is  a  reason  for  this.  The  first  three  re- 
quirements are  in  the  line  of  obvious,  if  not  of  self- 

1  2  Tim.  2  :  19.  2  John  4  :  24. 


158  THE    TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

evident,  truths  ;  the  requirement  of  one  day  in  seven 
for  rest  and  worship  is  not,  however,  of  obvious  im- 
portance. Hence  this  requirement  is  specifically 
affirmed  as  an  article  of  the  covenant,  while  the 
others  guard  against  departures  from  primal  prin- 
ciples of  vital  moment 

The  "  Sabbath"  was  a  recognized  institution  long 
before  the  days  of  Moses.  Traces  of  its  strict  and 
sacred  observance  in  the  ancestral  home  of  Abraham 
are  disclosed  in  the  Assyrian  records  unearthed  in 
these  later  days.  And  now  that  the  Lord,  at  Sinai,  is 
drawing  away  his  covenant  people  from  the  sins  and 
errors  of  their  fathers  and  neighbors,  he  reminds  them 
that  there  is  good  in  some  of  the  observances  of  the 
past,  which  they  are  not  to  forsake  or  forget.  "  Re- 
member," therefore  he  says,  "  the  sabbath  day  to 
keep  it  holy" — -as  your  fathers  in  all  their  polytheism 
had  a  care  to  observe  it  of  old.  Bear  that  institution 
in  mind,  as  worth  your  remembering.  ^ 

And  here  again  there  is  affirmed  a  principle  which 
is  for  all  time  and  for  all  people.  Although  the 
reason  for  setting  apart  one  day  above  another  for 
rest  and  worship  is  not  on  the  surface  of  things,  the 
experiences'  of  mankind,  as  well  as  the  teachings  of 
God's  Word,  go  to  show  that  there  is  such  a  reason 
below  the  surface.      In  the  long  run,  man  can  do  more 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  159 

work,  and  do  it  better,  in  six  days  of  a  week,  than  he 
can  in  seven  ;  and  unless  a  man  worships  God  at 
stated  times,  he  is  not  likely  to  worship  him  at  all. 
So  it  is  that  God  makes  it  a  part  of  his  loving  cove- 
nant between  himself  and  his  people,  that  ever  and 
always  they  shall  worship  him  statedly,  as  well  as 
worship  him  sincerely,  spiritually,  and  solely  ;  because 
without  this  stated  recognition  of  the  covenant,  the 
covenant  itself  would  be  forgotten. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  fifth  of  the  ten  covenant 
requirements  :  "  Honor  thy  father  and  thy  mother." 
This  also  is  in  the  affirmative  form,  and  for  a  very 
good  reason.  God  is  here  declaring,  as  it  were,  that 
those  who  are  in  legitimate  authority  are  so  far  his 
representatives.  He  wants  it  understood  that  while 
no  other  gods  are  in  existence,  even  in  a  subordinate 
place  in  the  universe,  he  has  his  representatives  in 
various  spheres  of  human  government  and  rule,  and 
they  are  to  be  honored  accordingly  by  his  covenant 
people. 

We  are  accustomed  to  speak  of  the  division  of  the 
Ten  Commandments  into  two  tables,  the  first  com- 
prising four  requirements,  and  the  second  six ;  but  it 
will  be  seen  that  this  fifth  requirement  belongs  with 
the  preceding  four  in  the  group  of  those  which  look 
God-ward.      It  is  as  though  the  one  table  pointed  up- 


160  THE    TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

ward  from  ourselves,  while  the  other  pointed  outward. 
We  are  to  honor  those  who  are  over  us  in  the  Lord, 
not  as  our  fellows,  but  as  our  superiors  ;  not  because 
of  what  they  are  as  men,  but  because  they  are,  within 
the  scope  of  their  rule,  the  representatives  of  our  God. 

By  Oriental  custom  the  terms  "  father "  and 
"  mother  "  are  by  no  means  limited  to  one's  natural 
parents,  but  are  applicable  to  superiors  in  years,  or  in 
wisdom,  or  in  civil  or  religious  station.  This  truth 
was  impressed  on  my  mind  by  an  incident  in  my 
journey  across  the  desert  of  Sinai.  My  companions 
in  travel  were  two  young  men,  neither  of  them  a  rela- 
tive of  mine, — as  my  dragoman  very  well  knew. 
When,  however,  in  mid-desert,  we  met  an  old  Arab 
shaykh,  through  whose  territory  we  were  to  pass,  my 
dragoman  introduced  me  as  the  father  of  these  young 
men.  "No,  they  are  not  my  sons"  I  said  to  the 
dragoman  ;  but  his  answer  was  :  "  That's  all  right. 
Somebody  must  be  father  here."  And  when  I  found 
that,  according  to  the  Arab  idea,  every  party  of  trav- 
elers must  have  a  leader,  and  that  the  leader  of  a 
party  was  called  its  "father,"  I  saw  that  it  would  look 
better  for  me  to  be  called  the  father  of  the  young 
men,  than  for  one  of  them  to  be  called  my  father. 

Traces  of  this  idea  are  found  in  the  Bible  use  of  the 
term  "father."      In  Genesis,  Jabal  is  said  to  be  "  the 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  l6l 

father  of  such  as  dwell  in  tents,  and  have  cattle;"1 
the  man  who  started  the  long  line  of  nomad  shep- 
herds. Jubal  is  called  "  the  father  of  all  such  as 
handle  the  harp  and  pipe  ; "  2  the  pioneer  instrumental 
musician  of  our  race.  Joseph  in  Egypt  speaks  of 
himself  as  "  a  father  to  Pharaoh,"  3  in  view  of  the  con- 
fidence reposed  in  him  by  the  ruler  of  the  empire. 
"Be  unto  me  a  father  and  a  priest,"  4  says  Micah  to 
the  young  Levite,  in  the  days  of  the  Judges  ;  because 
a  religious  guide  is,  in  the  East,  counted  as  in  a 
peculiar  sense  a  representative  of  God. 

It  is  not  merely  that  the  terms  "father"  and 
"mother"  may  include  others  besides  human  parents, 
but  it  is  that  no  Oriental  would  think  of  limiting 
those  terms  to  that  relationship.  Hence  this  fifth  re- 
quirement of  the  covenant  of  God's  people  with  their 
God,  just  as  it  stands,  is  in  substance  :  Honor  those 
who  are  over  you  in  the  Lord,  as  the  representatives 
of  the  Lord  ;  for  the  powers  that  be  are  ordained  of 
God,5  and  he  who  fails  to  honor  them  lacks  in  due 
honor  to  him  who  has  deputed  them  to  speak  and  to 
act  for  himself.  And  herein  is  affirmed  a  principle 
which  is  as  important  to  us  to-day  as  it  was  to  the 
Israelites  in  the   days  of  Moses.      Indeed,  it  may  be 

iGen.  4  :  20.  2Gen.  4  :  21.  8  Gen.  45  :  8.  4Judg.  17  :  10. 

5  Rom.  13  :  1. 


1 62  THE    TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

questioned  whether  any  precept  of  the  ten  covenant 
requirements  has  a  more  specific  bearing  on  the 
peculiar  needs  of  the  American  people,  than  this  in- 
junction to  reverence  those  who  are  in  authority  be- 
cause they  are  God's  representatives  in  their  sphere. 
Anarchy  can  have  no  tolerance  in  the  mind  of  a  child 
of  God  ;  but  reverence  for  rightful  authority  has  its 
home  there. 

Turning  from  the  first  table  of  the  covenant  with  its 
upward  look,  to  the  second  table  with  its  outward 
look,  we  find  that  each  new  requirement  in  its  order 
stands  for  a  great  principle  which  is  applicable  alike  to 
all  peoples  and  to  all  times,  and  which  has  its  basis  in 
man's  loving  union  with  God.  The  first  of  this  series, 
the  sixth  of  the  ten  requirements,  is  :  "  Thou  shalt  not 
kill;"  or,  "Thou  shalt  do  no  murder."  Here  is  a 
great  deal  more  than  an  ordinance  forbidding  the 
striking  down  to  death  of  a  fellow-man.  Here  is  a 
call  of  God  to  guard  sacredly  the  life  of  every  child 
of  God,  as  that  which  is  dear  to  God.  In  the  Oriental 
world,  as  in  the  primitive  world  generally,  blood 
stands  for  life,  and  life  is  supposed  to  proceed  from 
God  and  to  return  to  God.  When,  therefore,  an 
Oriental  is  told  that  he  must  not  take  it  upon  himself 
to  shed  another's  blood,  he  realizes  that  that  prohibi- 
tion  is   equivalent  to  saying  that  it  is  not  for  him  to 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  1 63 

decide  when  a  life  that  God  has  given  shall  be  re- 
called to  God. 

This  idea  it  is  that  runs  through  the  whole  system 
of  what  is  popularly  known  as  "  blood  revenge  "  in  the 
East.  "  Whoso  sheddeth  man's  blood,  by  man  shall 
his  blood  be  shed  :  for  in  the  image  of  God  made  he 
man,"  1  was  the  declaration  of  God  as  early  as  the 
days  of  Noah  ;  and  it  is  in  the  line  of  that  declaration 
that  any  man  in  the  East  who  sheds  another's  blood 
must  surrender  his  own  blood  to  the  other's  family,  at 
the  present  day — as  ever  since  the  days  of  Noah. 
Not  personal  revenge,  but  divine  equity,  is  the  real 
basis  of  this  system.  Not  because  the  life  belongs  to 
the  man,  but  because  it  belongs  to  God,  must  it  be 
guarded  sacredly,  and  be  accounted  for — if  taken 
away. 

It  is  on  this  principle  that  the  civil  magistrate,  as 
the  messenger  of  God,  takes  the  life  of  one  who  has 
taken  another's  life,  in  these  days  of  the  Christian  dis- 
pensation. "  He  beareth  not  the  sword  in  vain  :  for 
he  is  a  minister  of  God,  an  avenger  for  wrath  to  him 
that  doeth  evil."  2  A  child  of  God  must  count  sacred 
every  life  which  God  has  given  ;  and  except  while 
acting  as  a  specific  messenger  of  God,  he  must  never 
send  back  a  human  life  to  God. 

1  Gen.  9:6.  2  Rom.  13  :  4. 


1 64  THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

The  seventh  covenanting  requirement  is  a  call  to 
regard  the  family  institution  as  an  institution  of  God's 
appointing,  and  to  refrain  from  aught  that  tends  to  its 
injury.  "Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery"  means  a 
great  deal  more  than  Refrain  from  unchastity  because 
of  its  harm  to  yourself  or  to  your  neighbor.  It 
means,  Guard  God's  primal  institution  for  man,  as  an 
institution  which  God  holds  dear.  At  the  very  begin- 
ning of  the  race,  it  was  ordained  of  God  that  one  man 
and  one  woman — the  twain,  not  the  three,  or  the  four, 
but  the  twain — should  be  one  flesh  in  loving  union.1 
This  institution  of  God's  ordaining  is  dear  to  God,  and 
it  ought  to  be  dear  to  every  child  of  his  ;  therefore 
God  says  to  those  who  would  be  in  loving  compact 
with  him,  "Thou  shalt  not  commit  adultery."  Be- 
cause your  and  my  interests  are  made  one,  you  must 
not,  you  cannot,  as  my  loving  people,  do  aught  that 
shall  prove  injurious  to  the  family — to  the  institution 
which  I  have  established,  and  which  is  dear  to  my 
heart. 

This,  again,  is  not  an  arbitrary  commandment  ;  nor 
is  it  one  for  a  single  period,  or  for  a  single  people 
only.  It  is  the  enunciation  of  a  principle  which  is 
vital  to  the  well-being  of  all  peoples  at  all  times.  It 
was  so  from  the  beginning,  and  it  must  be  so  unto  the 

1  Gen.  2  :  24. 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  l6$ 

end.  The  family  is  the  unit  in  the  State  and  in  the 
Church.  It  must  not  be  ignored  in  the  realm  of 
society,  of  government,  or  of  religion.  He  who  would 
be  true  to  God  must  be  true  to  the  institution  of  the 
family.  And  who  shall  say  that  we  have  no  need  of 
remembering  this  truth  in  our  land  and  day  ? 

The  eighth  requirement  of  the  covenant  guards  the 
rights  of  property  as  within  the  plan  and  ordering  of 
God.  "Thou  shalt  not  steal"  is  announced  as  an 
article  of  the  loving  compact  of  God's  people  with 
their  God.  Not  merely  because  your  fellow-man 
would  object  to  your  taking  his  property  from  him, 
but  because  the  rights  of  property  are  of  divine  ap- 
pointment, are  you  to  refrain  from  claiming  as  your 
own  that  which  now  belongs  to  another. 

This  idea  of  regarding  property  rights  as  of  God's 
appointment  is  peculiarly  prevalent  in  the  Oriental 
mind.  The  lines  of  tribal  division  in  the  desert  are 
recognized  as  having  divine  sanction  ;  and  now,  as  in 
the  days  of  old,  it  is  hardly  less  than  sacrilege  to  re- 
move an  ancient  landmark  in  the  East.  Tribes  which 
are  at  enmity  will  make  raids  across  these  border  lines 
for  purposes  of  plunder ;  but  this  is  in  the  nature  of 
what  "civilized"  nations  call  a  "military  necessity." 
Again,  a  stranger  who  enters  a  tribal  domain  without 
obtaining  consent  is  treated  as  a  smuggler,  and  all  his 


1 66  THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

property  is  confiscated  accordingly.  This,  however, 
merely  shows  the  primitive  origin  of  the  "high  tariff" 
principle.  Orientals  who  plunder  from  their  enemies, 
or  who  collect  impost  duties  from  immigrants,  do  so 
in  the  belief  that  God  sanctions  these  habits  of  the 
ages. 

When  one  of  the  Arabs  of  our  party,  in  crossing  the 
desert  of  Sinai,  found  he  had  dropped  a  bag  of  meal, 
he  went  back  to  look  for  it,  in  perfect  confidence  that 
it  would  be  left  untouched  by  others.  On  my  asking 
him  if  he  had  no  fear  that  another  Arab  had  carried  it 
off,  he  replied  that  no  Arab  would  steal  from  an  Arab. 
Dr.  Edward  Robinson  l  saw  a  black  tent  hanging  on 
a  tree,  where,  as  he  was  told,  it  had  remained  a  full 
year  awaiting  its  owner's  return  ;  and  he  says  that  if 
a  loaded  camel  dies  on  the  desert  its  owner  draws  a 
circle  in  the  sand  about  it,  and  leaves  it  without  any 
fear  that  it  will  be  disturbed  in  his  absence.  Burck- 
hardt 2  illustrates  the  estimate  put  by  the  Arabs  on 
stealing,  by  the  story  of  an  Arab  father  who  bound 
his  own  son  hand  and  foot,  and  cast  him  headlong  to 
death  from  a  precipice,  because  the  son  had  stolen 
from  one  of  his  tribal  fellows.  Life  can  only  be 
taken    at    the   call    of   God  ;  but,   according    to    this 

1  Biblical  Researches,  nth  ed. ,  I.,  142. 
2  Travels  in  Syria  and  the  Holy  Land,  p.  475  f. 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  1 67 

Oriental  view,  he  who  violates  the  property  rights  of 
one  of  God's  children  forfeits  his  very  life  to  God. 

The  principle  underlying  this  estimate  of  the  sacred- 
ness  of  property  rights,  like  every  other  principle 
enunciated  in  the  Decalogue,  is  not  an  outgrowth  of 
an  arbitrary  commandment,  but  it  inheres  in  the  very 
nature  of  God's  dealings  with  the  sons  of  men.  What 
hast  thou  that  thou  didst  not  receive  by  God's  con- 
sent ? 1  What  has  thy  fellow  that  he  did  not  receive 
by  the  same  permission  ?  It  is  God  who  gives.  It  is 
for  God  to  take  away.2  No  loving  child  of  God  will 
refuse  to  heed  the  limits  which  his  Father  has  assigned 
in  the  distribution  of  his  possessions  among  the  chil- 
dren of  his  love.  That  was  the  way  in  which  the 
Orientals  were  taught  to  look  at  it.  That  is  the  way 
in  which  we  ought  to  view  it.  Anti-property  com- 
munism is  rebellion  against  God. 

Ninth  in  the  list  of  the  covenant  requirements 
comes  the  summons  to  hold  in  sacred  regard  the  per- 
sonal reputation,  or  good  name,  of  every  child  of 
God.  "  Thou  shalt  not  bear  false  witness  against  thy 
neighbor"  is  a  prohibition  of  slander,  or  of  careless 
speech  affecting  the  good  name  of  one's  fellow-man. 
This  is  not,  as  many  have  supposed,  a  mere  injunction 
to  truthful  speech  on  all  occasions.      Lying  needs  no 

1 1  Cor.  4  :  7.  2Job  1  :  21. 


1 68  THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

specific  prohibition  in  a  loving  compact  between  God 
and  his  people  ;  although  the  duty  of  truthfulness  is 
inseparable  from  the  thought  of  any  compact  with 
God — who  could  not  be  God  if  he  were  to  approve 
untruthfulness.1  But  a  disregard  by  man  of  the  repu- 
tation of  his  fellow-man  does  need  to  be  guarded 
against  in  such  a  compact ;  therefore  its  mention  has 
a  place  here.  A  child's  good  name  is  always  dear  to 
his  father.  He  who  loves  and  honors  the  father  will 
not  be  heedless  of  the  reputation  of  the  child.  God 
is  the  Father  of  all.  The  good  name  of  eveiy  one  of 
his  children  is  dear  to  him.  He  who  loves  and 
honors  God  will  not  be  careless  of  the  reputation  of 
any  one  of  God's  dear  children.  Therefore  it  is  that, 
in  the  loving  covenant  of  God  with  his  people,  it  is 
declared  that  love  for  God  includes  a  truthful  fidelity 
to  the  good  name  of  every  child  of  God. 

How  the  application  of  this  principle  comes  home 
to  us  in  our  social  life  as  God's  children  !  We  are 
jealous  of  the  good  name  of  the  members  of  our  own 
families.  We  are  tender  of  the  reputation  of  those 
whom  we  know  to  be  very  dear  to  our  dearest  friends. 
But  how  careless  we  are  of  the  good  name  of  those  in 
whom  we  feel  no  special  concern,  or  of  the  reputation 
of  those  who  happen  to  be  personally  disagreeable  to 

1  Num.  23  :  19. 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  1 69 

us  !  We  hear  and  repeat  the  words  spoken  to  their 
discredit  without  knowing  whether  or  not  those  words 
are  true.  By  our  unguarded  speech  or  looks  we 
help,  perhaps,  to  give  a  false  impression  to  others 
concerning  them.  And  all  the  while  they  are  God's 
dear  children,  and  every  spiteful  or  thoughtless  blow 
at  them  is  a  stroke  at  him.  Is  this  consistent  with 
our  claim  of  loving  union  with  their  God  and  ours  ? 

It  was  in  the  line  of  this  principle  that  our  Lord 
Jesus  gave  emphasis  to  his  one  new  commandment, 
that  those  who  loved  him  should  love  one  another,  as 
being  dear  to  him  ; l  and,  again,  that  he  declared  that 
whoever  ministered  tenderly  to  one  of  his  disciples 
should  be  reckoned  as  ministering  to  himself.2  God 
links  himself  in  loving  sympathy  with  all  his  children, 
and  he  wants  their  welfare  to  be  held  dear  by  all  who 
hold  him  dear. 

And  now  we  come  to  the  tenth  and  last  of  the  re- 
quirements of  this  covenant.  Here  we  find  an  in- 
junction that  goes  deeper  than  those  which  precede  it 
on  the  second  tablet  of  the  written  compact.  "  Thou 
shalt  not  covet."  Not  only,  Thou  shalt  not  openly 
disregard  human  life,  or  the  family  institution,  or  the 
property  or  the  reputation  of  any  one  of  thy  fellows  ; 
but,  Thou  shalt  not  want  to  do  any  of  these  things. 

1  John  13  :  34.  2  Matt.  25  :  40. 


170  THE    TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

Thou  shalt  recognize  thine  own  lot,  and  thy  posses- 
sions, and  the  lot  and  the  possessions  of  others,  as 
God's  assignment  to  thee  and  to  them  ;  and  thou 
shalt  be  contented  within  the  sphere  which  he  has 
deemed  best  for  thee. 

This  requirement  in  the  second  table  of  the  com- 
pact corresponds  with  the  third  requirement  in  the 
first  table.  The  one  says  that  the  child  of  God  must 
be  sincere  and  unfeigned  in  his  loving  devotedness  to 
God  as  his  Father  ;  the  other  says  that  the  child  of 
God  must  accept  in  all  heartiness  his  Father's  order- 
ing concerning  himself,  in  his  relations  to  all  his 
brothers  and  sisters  in  the  great  family  of  God. 

Here  it  is  that  we  find  the  more  spiritual  teachings 
of  the  Decalogue  concerning  man's  obligations  to  his 
fellow-man  in  the  loving  service  of  God,  as  they  are 
pointed  out,  and  emphasized  in  the  words  of  Jesus,  in 
what  we  call  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount.1  Here  it  is 
that  the  lesson  comes  home  to  us  that  it  is  not  enough 
for  us  to  refrain  from  actual  murder  and  adultery  and 
theft  and  false  witnessing  ;  but  that  it  is  inconsistent 
with  our  devotedness  to  God  as  our  loving  Father  for 
us  to  have  a  hateful  thought  toward  one  of  his  dear 
children  ;  for  us  to  look  longingly  in  the  direction  of 
another  family  assignment  than  that  which  is  ours  in 

1  Matt.  5  :  3  to  7  :  27. 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  17 1 

the  way  of  God's  appointment ;  for  us  to  turn  a  wist- 
ful or  an  envious  thought  toward  any  possession  of 
another  which  we  have  no  right  to  seek  after.  And 
all  this  is  not  of  God's  arbitrary  commanding,  but  is 
in  the  very  essence  of  God's  loving  covenanting  with 
his  chosen  people.  Therefore  it  is  that  the  Apostle 
urges  Christians  to  keep  themselves  from  "fornica- 
tion, uncleanness,  passion,  evil  desire,  and  covetous- 
ness,  the  which  is  idolatry;  "  l  the  indulging  in  which 
is  being  untrue  to  God  as  one's  covenant  God. 

And  now  in  the  light  of  these  disclosures  of  the 
nature  and  meaning  of  the  successive  clauses  of  this 
covenant  of  God  with  his  Oriental  people,  let  us  look 
back  upon  it  as  a  whole  in  its  spirit  and  teachings,  in 
order  that  we  may  see  what  is  covered  by  it,  and 
wherein  its  applications  are  for  us  as  well  as  for  God's 
people  of  old.  God  must  be  recognized  as  God  alone. 
No  heart  can  love  God  as  God,  unless  that  heart 
loves  God  wholly.  God  must  be  worshiped  spiritu- 
ally ;  for  spiritual  things  are  spiritually  discerned,  and 
only  as  a  man  is  lifted  above  sight  and  sense  can  he 
be  in  communion  with  the  spiritual  and  the  infinite. 
Union  with  God  must  be  sincere  and  unfeigned  ;  for 
only  by  a  complete  and  willing  surrender  of  one's 
1  Col.  3  :  s- 


172  THE    TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

self  can  one's  self  be  merged  into  a  holy  and  infinite 
Personality.  The  loving  worship  of  God  must  have 
its  stated  times,  and  hence,  of  course,  its  stated  places, 
in  order  to  have  its  fitting  hold  on  the  worshiper ; 
and  the  recognition  of  this  truth  in  the  covenant  is 
the  authorization  of  all  legitimate  seasons  and  methods 
of  worship.  God's  representatives  in  the  family,  in 
the  State,  and  in  the  Church,  are  to  be  honored  as 
God's  representatives  ;  and  herein  is  the  authorization 
of  all  right  forms  of  human  rule.  These  are  the 
teachings  of  the  first  table  of  the  covenant ;  and  those 
of  the  second  table  are  like  unto  them. 

He  who  loves  God  must  love  those  who  are  God's. 
As  the  Apostle  expresses  it:  "If  a  man  say,  I  love 
God,  and  hateth  his  brother,  he  is  a  liar  :  for  he  that 
loveth  not  his  brother  whom  he  hath  seen,  cannot 
love  God  whom  he  hath  not  seen.  And  [therefore] 
this  [second]  commandment  have  we  from  him,  that 
he  who  loveth  God  love  his  brother  also."  *  Every 
child  of  man  is  a  child  of  God.  Wayward  and  prodi- 
gal son  though  he  be,  he  still  is  one  who  was  made  in 
the  image  of  God  ;  and  his  Father's  heart  goes  out 
toward  him  unfailingly  in  love.  Hence  he  who  loves 
the  Father  must  guard  with  sacredness  the  life  of 
every  child  of  that  Father.      He  must  honor  the  insti- 

1 1  John  4  :  20,  21. 


AS  A    COVENANT  OF  LOVE  1 73 

tution  of  the  family,  which  is  the  human  hope  of  the 
children  of  that  Father.  He  must  hold  dear  the 
property  possessions  and  the  good  name  of  each  and 
every  child  of  that  Father.  And  in  his  heart  there 
must  be  such  love  for  that  Father's  children  as  the 
children  of  his  Father,  that  he  will  have  no  wish  to 
do  aught  that  shall  harm  any  one  of  them  in  any 
degree. 

Thus  it  is  that  the  spirit  and  substance  of  the  en- 
tire covenant  compact  stand  out  in  those  words  of  our 
Lord  which  lose  their  meaning  if  we  look  at  the  Ten 
Commandments  as  ten  arbitrary  commandings  of 
God.  When  a  certain  lawyer  came  to  Jesus  with  the 
knotty  question,  "  Master,  which  is  the  great  com- 
mandment in  the  law?  "  Jesus  said  unto  him  :  "Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord  thy  God  with  all  thy  heart,  and 
with  all  thy  soul,  and  with  all  thy  mind.  This  is  the 
great  and  first  commandment.  And  a  second  like 
unto  it  is  this,  Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thy- 
self. On  these  two  commandments  hangeth  the 
whole  law,  and  the  prophets."  l  And  thus  it  is  that 
we  are  enabled  to  realize  that  "love  ...  is  the  fulfil- 
ment of  the  law."  2 

The  "Ten  Commandments"  are  the  law,  the  law 
of  the  covenant  of  love  ;  but,  be  it  remembered,  they 

2Matt.  22  :  36-40.  2  Rom.  13  :  10. 


174  THE   TEN  COMMANDMENTS 

are  not  the  "  Mosaic  law."  They  were  not  originated 
by  Moses  ;  nor  were  they  done  away  with  when  the 
Mosaic  law  was  fulfilled  and  abrogated  in  Christ. 
They  are  the  law  of  the  promptings  of  love  ;  an 
orderly  statement  of  the  principles  which  rule  in  a 
heart  which  is  devoted  to  God.  Their  origin  is  in  the 
nature  of  God  ;  and  their  continuance  must  be  co- 
existent with  the  needs  of  the  children  of  God.  With 
all  our  shortcomings  in  love,  and  with  all  our  failures 
in  fidelity  to  our  covenant-union  with  God  in  Christ 
Jesus,  just  so  far  as  we  are  in  oneness  with  God  by 
faith  shall  we  be  true  to  the  principles  of  this  covenant- 
compact  of  God  with  his  people.  "  God  is  love  ;  and 
he  that  abideth  in  love  abideth  in  God,  and  God 
abideth  in  him."1  "And  hereby  know  we  that  we 
know  him,  if  we  keep  his  commandments."  2 

1 1  John  4  :  16.  2 1  John  2  : 3. 


INDEXES 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


Aaron,  God's  covenant  with,  17. 

Ababde  women,  reference  to,  99. 

"  Abusers  of  the  salt,"  no. 

Added  traces  of  the  rite,  123-130. 

•'Agreement"  used  interchangeably 
with  "  covenant,"  5. 

Alexis,  Grand  Duke,  reference  to,  125. 

"  Ali  Baba  and  the  Forty  Thieves," 
reference  to,  254. 

Altar  and  table  as  synonymous,  85. 

"  Ancient  Mariner,"  reference  to,  135. 

Animal  food  supplies  lack  of  salt,  38. 

Antony  and  Cleopatra,  reference  to,  55. 

Arabia,  Bed'ween  of,  reference  to,  no. 

"Arabian  Nights,"  reference  to,  64. 

Arabs  :  regard  for  salt  covenant  among, 
29 ;  not  accustomed  to  put  salt  on 
table,  29  f. ;  rite  of  bread  and  salt 
among,  31 ;  John  Macgregor  taken 
prisoner  by,  32  f.  ;  swearing  by  salt 
of,  54  ;  milk  sometimes  accepted  as 
substitute  for  salt  by,  62  ;  honesty 
of,  in  f.,  166. 

Archeology  :  its  value  compared  with 
philology,  4. 

Ark  of  the  covenant,  reference  to,  145. 

Armenians,  supply  of  salt  cut  off,  43. 

"  Arrangement,"  used  interchangeably 
with  "  covenant,"  5. 

Arvieux :  cited,  34. 

Asiatic  cholera  promoted  by  lack  of 
salt,  46. 

Asiatic  Quarterly  Review,  reference 
to,  46. 

Assyrian  roots,  gain  of  looking  among,  4. 

Assyrian  :  word  for  "  salt,"  76  ;  words 
translated  "  covenant,"  6  f. 

"Attic  salt,"  synonym  of  life  in  con- 
versation, 68. 

Babe  :  anoint  with  blood,  59  ;  more  life 
to  a,  59. 

Bancroft,  H.  H.  :  cited,  57,95. 

Band,  symbol  and  pledge  of  union,  7. 

Barley-meal  cakes  employed  in  sacri- 
fice, 94. 

Bartholow,  Dr. :  cited,  41. 

Battas,  in  Sumatra,  form  of  oath  of,  123. 

Bed'ween,  conventions  'or  covenants 
of,  30  f. 


Bey,  Durzee,  reference  to,  24. 

Bheels,  in  India,  reference  to,  60. 

Bible  :  references  to  the  rite  in,  17 ;  car- 
ried over  threshold  of  new  house,  76, 
106  ;  estimate  of  treachery  in,  113. 

Bingham's  "  Antiquities  :  "  cited,  89. 

Bird  Bishop,  Isabella :  cited,  47,  100. 

Birth  of  child,  salt  at,  61. 

Blackwood's  Magazine,  reference  to, 
127. 

"  Blood  Covenant  ':  reference  to,  6,  7,  8, 
9,  41,  45,  48,  53,  54,  59,  60,  62,  67,  79, 
85,  86,  117,  118, 119,  120, 147. 

Blood  :  fresh,  drunk  by  people  of  Masai, 
37  ;  salt  representing,  37-50;  drained 
from  animals  slaughtered  by  Jews, 
39  ;  transfusion  of,  41 ;  use  of,  as 
food,  41  ;  red  corpuscles  of,  42  f.  ; 
saline  ingredients  in,  42  f. ;  anoint- 
ing a  new-born  babe  with,  59  ;  Kaffir 
new  chief  washed  in,  60;  repre- 
sented by  wine,  117  ;  atoned  for  by 
blood,  137 ;  sprinkled  by  Moses, 
148  ;  shedding  man's,  162  f. 

"  Blood-licker  "  in  Mecca,  48. 

"  Blood  revenge  "  in  the  East,  163. 

Blunt,  on  Book  of  Common  Prayer  : 
cited,  80. 

Bock,  Carl  :  cited,  61. 

"  Boiling  water,  ordeal  of,"  101. 

Booddhists  in  China,  customs  among, 
92. 

Bracelet  as  symbol  and  pledge  of 
union,  7. 

Brahmanas,  reference  to.  90  f. 

Bread  :  salt  as  an  accompaniment  of,  14  ; 
and  salt,  23-34  '•  significance  of, 
79,  80  ;  and  flesh,  119. 

Bridal  couple,  sprinkled  with  salt, 
128  f. 

Browning,  Mrs.,  quotation  from,  55. 

Buchanan,  Dr.,  reference  to,  41. 

Bunge,  Professor  :  cited,  38,  39,  123. 

Burckhardt  :  cited,  24,  99  f.,  100,  166. 

Burder  :  cited,  31,  no,  112. 

Burning  Lamps,  Feast  of,  92  f. 

Burning  of  salt,  99  f. 

Burton  :  cited,  24  ;  quotation  from,  26. 

Bush's  illustrations,  reference  to,  109. 

Buxtorf :  cited,  87  f. 

177 


78 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


Cadamosto,  Aloisio,  reference  to,  69. 

Cannibals,  bathing  body  of  chief  in  salt 
after  death,  61. 

Catacazy,  Madame  de,  reference  to, 
125. 

Ceres,  reference  to,  23. 

Cattle,  salt  as  meaning,  91. 

Characteristics  of  a  covenant,  3-10. 

Chemist's  use  of  term  "  salt,"  39. 

China  :  blood  substitute  for  salt  in, 
38  ;  depriving  a  person  of  salt  a 
mode  of  punishment  in,  42 ;  cus- 
toms among  Booddhists  in,  92. 

Church,  salt  in  dedication  of  a,  90. 

Cicero,  reference  to,  68. 

Circumcision  as  token  of  a  covenant,  8. 

Clapperton :  cited,  24. 

"  College  salting,"  128. 

Collitz,  Professor  Hermann,  reference 
to,  50,  74. 

"  Compact,"  used  interchangeably  with 
"covenant."  5. 

"  Conventions,"  Bed'ween,  30  f. 

Corpse,  salt  on  a,  in  Scotland,  103. 

Cosmas,  reference  to,  69. 

Covenant  :  meaning  of  the  word,  3  f.  ; 
characteristics  of  a, 3-10;  etymology 
of,  5-,  words  used  interchangeably 
with,  5  ;  marriage  a,  7  ;  circum- 
cision as  token  of,  8  :  various  kind 
of,  9,  13;  Bible  references  to,  17s. 

Covenanting,  exchange  of  tokens  and 
symbols  in,  8. 

Cross,  sign  of  the,  reference  to,  89. 

Curative  powers  of  salt,  43  f. 

Customs  preceding  words,  9. 

Dacier,  reference  to,  70,  88. 

Daraon,  burning  of  salt  among  people 

of,  90. 
Darius,  King,    directing    supply    from 

royal  treasury,  20. 
David,  God's  covenant  with,  17  f. 
Da  Vinci's  painting,  reference  to,  113. 
Dead  body,  salt  on  breast  of,  104. 
Dead  Sea,  reference  to,  58,  134. 
Death  :  from  salts-hunger ,  42  ;  salt  used 

at,  61 ;  or  life,  133-138. 
Dedication  of  a  church,  90. 
Definition,  not  easily  reached,  5. 
Delitzsch,  Friedrich  :  cited,  7. 
Denham :  cited,  24. 
Dhar,  used  in  treaty  of  peace,  123 
I  >iab,  Joseph,  reference  to,  28. 
Discovery  of  salt  as  article  of  diet,  41. 
Disputes    settled    by   salt    and   water, 

124. 
Divination,  salt  in,  99-106. 
Division  of  Ten  Commandments,  159  f. 
Doolittle  :  cited,  100. 
Doughty  :  cited,  24. 

Du  Tott,  Baron,  quotation  from,  27,  28. 
Dyer,  Thistleton  :  quotation  from,  104  ; 

cited,  113,  137,  138. 


Eassie,  \V.  :  cited,  62. 

Ebionites,  salt  and  bread  employed 
by,  50. 

Edwards's  "  History  of  West  Indies," 
quotation  from,  60. 

Egypt :  salt  forbidden  to  priests  in  an- 
cient, 55  ;  Feast  of  Burning  Lamps 
in,  92  f.  ;  burning  salt  in,  99  ;  Mu- 
hammadan  Arabs  in,  100. 

Egyptian  :  use  ot  salt  in  sacrifice,  93  ; 
idea  of  wine  and  blood,  118;  col- 
lection of  taxes,  130. 

Egyptians,  table  an  altar  among,  85. 

El  Hejaz,  Bed'ween  of,  reference  to,  no. 

Elijah,  reference  to,  58. 

Elisha,  reference  to,  57. 

Elizabeth,  Queen,  reference  to,  126. 

Elkesaites,  bread  and  salt  employed 
by,  5°- 

Ellis's  "  History  of  Madagascar : " 
cited,  8. 

England,  burning  salt  in,  101. 

Esquimaux,  value  of  blood  among,  39. 

Etruscan  :  symbolism,  93;  customs,  salt 
in,  105. 

Etymology  of  "covenant,"  5. 

Eucharist,  salt  in  the,  89. 

"  Evil  eye  :  "  reference  to,  100  f. ;  treat- 
ment received  by  James  Napier  for, 
101  f. 

Evil  spirits,  exorcising,  99. 

Exactness  of  definition  not  to  be 
reached,  5. 

Exchange  of  tokens  and  symbols  as  a 
means  of  covenanting,  8. 

Exorcism,  salt  in,  99-106. 

Faithlessness  to  salt,  109-114. 

"  Father,"  Oriental  meaning  of,  160. 

Feast  of  Burning  Lamps,  92  f. 

Fidelity  to  salt,  130. 

Finn,  Mrs.,  quotation  from,  32. 

"  Fire  :  salted  with,"  65  ;   salt  leaping 

up  in,  95 ;  salt  thrown  into,  100. 
Fish,  salt  in  Dead  Sea  in  lieu  of,  58. 
Flesh  and  bread,  119. 
Flies,  dead,  life  brought  to,  by  salt,  63. 
Flood,  use  of  blood  as  food  forbidden 

after  the,  41. 
Floor,  salt  sprinkled  upon,  100. 
Florus,  reference  to,  55. 
Food  :  salt  indispensable  in,  14 ;  use  of 

blood  as,  41. 
Ford,  George  A.  :  cited,  101. 
Founder  of  Saffaride  dynasty,  27. 
Fourmeaux,  L.  :  cited,  40. 
Frazer  :    quotation    from,   no  ;    cited, 

118  f. 
"  Freshman,  salting  a,"  128. 
"Friendship      the      Master  -  Passion," 

reference  to,  9. 
Funeral,  salt  scattered  at  threshold  after, 

100. 
Furness,  W.  H.,  3d,  reference  to,  124. 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


1/9 


Germans,  waging  war  for  saline 
streams,  59. 

German  Jews,  customs  among,  86. 

Gesenius  :  cited,  7,  109. 

Ghoorka  salt,  eating,  no. 

Ginger  root,  salt  and,  given  as  wedding- 
cake,  124. 

God's  covenant  with  his  people,  150  f. 

Gold,  salt  in  exchange  for,  69. 

Greek  Church,  salt  deemed  essential  in 
Eucharist  by,  89. 

Greek  words  translated  "  covenant,"  7. 

Griffis,  William  Elliot :  cited,  47,  100. 

Grimm,  reference  to,  74. 

Gumpel,  C.  Godfrey  :  cited,  45. 

Gypsies, Hungarian  customs  among,i29. 

Hall,  Bishop,  reference  to,  127. 

Hamelin,  M.  :  cited,  34. 

Hamlin;  Dr. :  cited,  24. 

Harmer :  cited,  24. 

Harper's  Latin  Dictionary,  reference  to, 

94,  96- 
Hospitality,  salt  symbol  of,  126. 
Hebrew  roots,  gain  of  looking  among,  4. 
Hebrew  words  translated  "  covenant," 

6f. 
Hebrews,  forbidden  to  eat   "with   the 

blood,"  62. 
Hehn,  Victor:  reference  to,  69  ;   quota- 
tion from,  70. 
Hemorrhage,  salt  administered  in,  40. 
Henderson  :  cited,  103,  104,  137,  138, 
Henniker,  Sir  Frederick,  reference  to,  49. 
Herodotus  :  reference  to,  92  ;  cited,  119. 
Hilprecht,  Dr.  Herman  V.  :  cited,  76. 
"  Holy  water  :  "  salt  essential    element 
of,  90 ;  and  salt  mingled  in  food  and 
drink,  101. 
Homer  :  cited,  53,  94. 
"  Honey,   milk  and,"  symbol  of  blood 

and  flesh,  80. 
Howell,  W.  H.  :  cited,  41,  42. 
Hungarian    gypsies,    customs    among, 

129. 
Hungary,  wedding  customs  in,  128. 

Iago,  reference  to,  55. 
Ideas  precede  words,  3. 
Importance  of  salt  in  covenant,  32. 
Infant,  salt  put  into  mouth  of,  90. 
Inspiration  by  wine,  118. 
Intoxication  by  wine,  118. 

Jabal,  reference  to,  160. 
Japheth,  reference  to,  41. 
Jastrow,  Rev.  Dr.   Marcus  :  cited,  57, 

86,  112,  137. 
Jesus :  references  of,  to  salt,  64  f.  ;  new 

commandment  of,  169. 
Jews  :     careful    to    drain     blood    from 

slaughtered  animals,  39  ;  observing 

covenant  of  salt  at  table,  84  ;  table 

customs  among,  87. 


Josephus  :  cited,  83. 

Jubal,  reference  to,  161. 

Judas  Iscariot,  reference  to,  113. 

"  Kauesh-barnea,"  reference  to,  58. 

Kaffir  chief,  washed  in  blood  upon  as- 
suming authority,  60. 

Kama,  reference  to,  34. 

Kauravas,  reference  to,  34. 

Kluge :  cited,  74. 

Kohler,  Dr.  K. :  cited,  88. 

Kookies  of  India,  treaty  of  peace 
among,  123. 

Koordistan,  salt  lake  in  region  of,  59. 

Krishna,  reference  to,  34. 

Kuhn  :  cited,  74. 

Laiss-Safar,     worker    in     brass     and 

copper,  26. 
Lane  :  cited,  24,  64,  100. 
Lange,  reference  to,  65. 
Layard  :  cited,  26. 
Lea,  Henry  C.  :  cited,  101,  124. 
"  League,"  used  interchangeably  with 

"  covenant,"  5. 
Lebanon  region,  blood  covenant  in,  48. 
Leland,  quotation  from,  93. 
Leprosy,    prominence   of   salt  as    cure 

for,  45. 
Life  :  dependent  on  salt,  42  ;  salt  repre- 
senting, 53-70 ;  seasoned  with,  67 ; 
and  light,  73-76  ;  savor  of,  133-138. 
Light,  life  and,  73-76. 
Livingstone,  Dr.  David  :  cited,  37^,38. 
London  Court  Journal,  reference  to,  125. 
London    Quarterly    Review,    reference 

;to,  43. 
Lot  s  wife  turned  to  pillar  of  salt,  103. 
Lying,  reference  to,  167  f. 

Macgregor,    John,    experiences    with 

Arabs,  32  f.,  33. 
Macrae,  quotation  from,  126. 
Macrobius  :  cited,  49. 
Madagascar,  covenant  of  salt  in,  34. 
Mahabharata,  quoted  and  cited,  33  f. 
Man  offered  in  sacrifice,  91. 
Marie,  Princess,  reference  to,  125. 
Marriage :    a    covenant,    7 ;    salt    and 

bread    placed   under   threshold  at, 

106. 
Martene :  cited,  101. 
"  Martyrdom  of  an  Empress,"  129. 
Masai  people,  reference  to,  37. 
Meal,  salt  of  the  covenant  not   to  be 

lacking  from  the,  18. 
Meaning  of  the  word  "  covenant,"  3  f. 
Means  of  a  merged  life,  141,  142. 
Meat,  eating  of,  as  a  pledge,  24. 
Mecca,    "  blood-lickers  "    in,  reference 

to,  48. 
Mediterranean    Sea,   water  not    to    be 

taken  from,  70. 
Merged  life,  means  of,  141,  142. 


i8o 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


Merrill,  Selah  :  cited,  24. 

"  Merry  Wives  of  Windsor,"  reference 
to,  55- 

Message-bearer,  salt  in  hand  of,  126. 

Meyer's  commentary,  reference  to,  65. 

Milk  :  substitute  for  salt,  62  ;  used  in- 
stead of  blood,  62. 

"  Milk  and  honey"  standing  for  blood 
and  flesh,  80. 

"  Milk  brothers,"  reference  to,  62. 

Money,  salt  as,  69. 

Morier,  James,  reference  to,  54. 

Morris's  "  China  :  "   cited,  92. 

Morton,  Dr.  Thomas  G. :  cited,  41. 

Mountains  of  salt,  70. 

Miiller,  F.  Max,  reference  to,  91  f. 

Moody,  D.  L.,  reference  to,  156. 

Moses,  reference  to,  148, 158. 

"Mother,"  Oriental  meaning  of  term, 
160. 

Mount  Sinai,  Moses  at,  148. 

Name  signifying  personality,  155  f. 

Naming  child,  ceremony  of,  124. 

Napier,  James  :  cited,  101  f.,  104,  138. 

Neptune,  reference  to,  23. 

Nicoll,  reference  to,  65. 

Niebuhr :  cited,  24. 

Noah  :   use  of  blood  as  food  forbidden 

to,  41  ;  reference  to,  163. 
Norwach  :  cited,  7,  14,  137. 

Oath  :  Oriental  form  of,  54 ;  different 
forms  of,  123. 

"  Obligation,"  used  interchangeably 
with  "  covenant,"  5. 

Old  Testament,  word  '•  covenant  " 
in,  18. 

Oriental  :  form  of  oath,  54  ;  meaning  of 
terms  "  father  "  and  "  mother," 
160;  summit  of  treachery,  in. 

Orientals,  Bible  written  by,  146. 

Othello,  reference  to,  55. 

Oxford  University,  giving  salt  to  stu- 
dents in,  127. 

Page,  Master,  reference  to,  54. 
Pasha,  Arabi,  reference  to,  130. 
Pasha,  Moldovanji,  reference  to,  28. 
Paul,  reference  to,  07. 
Perley,  quotation  from,  125. 
Perpetuity,  salt  as  symbol  of,  84. 
Perspiration,  salt  shown  in,  40. 
Philinus,  reference  to,  56. 
Philology,  archeology  sometimes  more 

valuable  than,  4. 
Pierrotti  :  cited,  24. 
Plato,  reference  to,  53. 
Pledge,  eating  meat  as  a,  24. 
Pliny  :    cited,  45,  68,  70,  73,  94,  119. 
Plutarch  :    cited,   23,  53,  54,  55,  56,  57, 

119. 
Poison  of  rattlesnake,  43. 
Polo,  Marco  :  cited,  69. 


Preface  to  Ten  Commandments,  150. 

Price's  "Mohammedan  History:" 
cited,  27,  42. 

Priests,  salt  forbidden  to,  55. 

Primitive  covenanting,  6. 

"  Promise,"  used  interchangeably  with 
"  covenant,"  5. 

Pythagoras:  reference  to,  70;  quota- 
tion from,  88. 

Quain's  "Dictionary  of  Medicine:" 
cited,  40,  62. 

Ralston's  "Songs  of  Russian  Peo- 
ple :"  cited,  106. 

Raphel,  Don  :  reference  to,  30;  quota- 
tion from,  31  ;  cited,  in  f. 

Rattlesnake,  poison  of,  43. 

Rawlinson's  "Ancient  Egypt,"  quota- 
tion from,  93. 

Resuscitating  drowned  persons  by  salt, 
63- 

Richardson's  English  Dictionary,  ref- 
erence to,  96. 

Ring  as  symbol  and  pledge  of  union,  7. 

Robbery  attempted  by  Yakoob,  26  f. 

Robinson,  Dr.  Edward  :  cited,  166. 

Rodd's  "  Customs  :  "  cited,  101. 

Rosenmuller:  cited,  30;  reference  to, 
54- 

Russell's  "  Natural  History  of  Aleppo," 
quotation  from,  24. 

"  Sabbath,"  a  recognized  institution 
before  Moses,  158. 

Sacrifice  on  threshold,  47. 

Sacrifices,  salt  in,  83-96. 

"  Sacrificial  essence,  the."  91. 

Saffaride  dynasty,  founder  of,  27. 

Saffaride  Kaleefs,  story  of  the  origin  of 
the  dynasty  of,  26. 

St.  Augustine  :  cited,  89. 

St.  Peter,  fresh  water  changed  to  salt 
by,  59- 

Sais,  annual  festival  at,  92. 

Salary,  derivation  of  word,  68. 

Saline  injections,  40. 

Salt :  as  preservative,  14  ;  indispensa- 
ble in  food, 14 ;  spoken  of  as  an 
accompaniment  of  bread,  14 ;  a 
vital  element,  18  ;  covenant  of,  per- 
petual and  unalterable,  18 ;  of  the 
covenant  not  to  be  lacking,  18 ;  in 
many  lands  the  possession  of  gov- 
ernment, 19 ;  bread  and,  23-34  ; 
nothing  eatable  without,  23  ;  on  a 
common  table,  29  f.  ;  importance  of, 
to  a  covenant,  32  ;  representing 
blood,  37-50 ;  and  salts,  39 ;  dis- 
covery of  as  article  of  diet,  41  ;  as 
antidote  for  snake-bite,  43 ;  as 
saline  ingredient  of  blood,  43  ;  cura- 
tive powers  of,  43  f.  ;  supply  of,  cut 
off  from  Armenians,  43  ;  strewn  on 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


181 


threshold,  47  ;  representing  life, 
53-70;  and  sun,  73-76  ;  in  sacrifices, 
83-96 ;  in  the  Eucharist,  89 ;  as 
sacrificial  essence,  91  ;  leaping  up 
in  fire,  95  ;  in  divination,  99-106  ; 
in  exorcism,  99-106  ;  not  to  be  car- 
ried out  of  house  after  dark,  101  ; 
on  a  corpse  in  Scotland,  103  ;  car- 
ried across  threshold  upon  entering 
new  house,  106;  faithlessness  to, 
109-114  ;  and  ginger  root  given  as 
wedding-cake,  124  ;  water  mocking 
thirst,  135. 

Salt-cellar  as  point  of  division  on  family 
table,  126. 

Salt-making,  ordinary  process  of,  75. 

Salted  cake,  essential  in  sacrificial  offer- 
ing, 94. 

Salted  water,  drinking  of,  as  a  cove- 
nant, 48. 

"  Salted  with  fire,"  65. 

"Salting  a  freshman,"  128. 

Salts,  salt  and,  39. 

Salts-hunger,  death  from,  42. 

Samaria,  woman  of,  reference  to,  157. 

Samoyedes  dipping  flesh  in  blood  before 
eating  it,  38. 

Sanskrit  roots,  gain  of  looking  among,  4. 

Savor  of  death,  133-138. 

Savor  of  life,  133-138. 

Sayce,  Professor  A.  H.,  reference  to,  74. 

Schrader,  O.:  cited,  74. 

Schultz,  Stephen  :  cited,  28,  29  f.,  30. 

Scipio,  reference  to,  68. 

Scotland,  salt  on  a  corpse  in,  103. 

Scott,  Sir  Walter,  quotation  from,  127. 

Seal  killing  by  Esquimaux,  39. 

Seasoned  :  with  life,  67;  with  salt,  67. 

Second  requirement  of  God's  covenant, 

T53- 
Sentiment  valuable  in  research.  5. 
Septuagint,  The,  reference  to,  33,  84. 
Settling  dispute  by  salt  and  water,  124. 
Shallow,  Justice,  reference  to,  54. 
Shewbread,  salt  on  table  of,  84. 
Shooter's  "  Kafirs  :"  cited.  60. 
Sign  of  the  cross,  reference  to,  89. 
Significance  of  bread,  70,  80. 
"Sin-eaters,"  reference  to,  105. 
'•  Sitting  below  the  salt,"  126. 
Sixth   requirement  of  God's  covenant 

162. 
Skeat  :  cited,  74. 
Smith,  George  Adam,  quotation   from 

134- 
Smith,  W.  Robertson  :  cited,  14,  24,48 

59,  62,  137. 
Snake-bite,  salt  as  antidote  for,  43. 
Sodom  destroyed  because   of  faithless 

ness  to  salt,  112. 
"  Son  "  and  "  sun  "  from  same  root,  73 
Spencer,  Herbert  :  cited,  123,  126. 
Spilling  of  salt,  138. 
Stanley,  Henry  M.,  reference  to,  46  f. 


Stealing,  Arab  estimate  of,  166. 

Stevens,  Dr   W.:  cited,  43. 

Stewart's   "Manual    of    Physiology:" 

reference   to,  42 ;    quotation  from, 

123. 
Strassburg  University,  reference  to,  i28. 
Strickland,  Agnes  :  cited.  126. 
Student,  in  Journal  of  Asiatic  Society, 

giving  salt  to,  127. 
"  Studies  in  Oriental  Social  Life,"  14, 23, 

24,  58. 
Substitute  together  with  reality,  117-120 
Substituting  salt  for  blood,  37. 
Sun,  salt  and,  73-76. 
Supply  of  salt  cut  off  from  Armenians, 

43- 
Survey  of  Western  Palestine,  reference 

to,  32. 
Swearing  by  salt,  54. 
Sword,  saU  on  blade  of,  49. 
Syrophoenician    woman,    reference  to, 


Table:  of  shewbread,  salt  on,  84:  an 

altar,  85  ;  customs  among  Jews,  87. 
Tacitus :  cited,  135. 
Tamerlane,    Mongol -Tartar   chieftain 

reference  to,  109. 
Tatar  tradition  of  salt,  41. 
Taxation  in  Egypt,  130. 
Tears,  salt  shown  in,  40. 
Ten  Commandments,  division  of,  159  f. 
Thirst,  salt  water  mocking,  135. 
Thomson,  W.  M.  :  cited,  24;  quotation 

from,  37. 
"Three,"  value  as  sacred  number.  103. 
Threshold  :  pouring  blood  on,  47  ;   Bible 

carried   across,  in   new  house,    76  : 

salt  and  candle   carried  across,  76  ; 

salt  scattered  at,  100  ;  salt  and  Bible 

carried   across,  in   new  house,  106  ; 

salt  and  bread  under,  106. 
"  Threshold  Covenant,"  reference  to,  6 

47,  106,  117,  128,  130. 
Torture  :   depriving  of  salt  as  a  means 

of,  42  ;   treachery,  Oriental  summit 

of,  in  ;  Bible  summit  of,  113. 
"  Treaty,"    used  interchangeably  with 

"  covenant,"  5. 
Truce  between  enemies,  sharing  water 

as,  23  f. 
Twain  made  one,  7. 

Van  Lennep  :  cited,  61. 
Various  kinds  of  covenant,  9. 
Vegetable  :  diet  used  by  those  who  take 
salt,  38  ;  life,  salt  destructive  of.  133. 
Virgil,  reference  to,  94. 
Volney :  cited,  31. 

Warburton  :  cited,  24. 

Water  :   sharing    of,    23 ;    fountain    of, 

cured,   58 ;  not  to   be  dipped   from 

Mediterranean  Sea,  70. 


182 


TOPICAL  INDEX 


Wellhausen  :  cited,  95. 
Wetzstein  :  cited,  24. 
Wheeler's   "History  of  India 


34- 
Wilkinson's 

93- 


Ancient  Egypt : 


Wine  :   representing    blood,    117 

salt,  119. 
Wit,  salt  equivalent  of,  67. 
Woman  of  Samaria,  reference  to, 


cited, 

cited, 

and 


Words  :  ideas  precede,  3  ;  limitations 
and  imperfectness  of,  3  ;  customs 
precede,  9. 

Yakoob,  a  robber  chieftain,  26. 
"Youth,  salt  of,"  54. 
Yudhishthira,  reference  to,  34. 

Zekubbabel,  rebuilding  of  the  temple 
by,  19. 


SCRIPTURAL  INDEX 


GENESIS. 


TEXT 

2  :  24  . 
4  :  20, 21 
9:4  •  • 
9:6.. 
17  :  1-14 

17  :  14     • 

18  :  1-8   . 

19  :  24,  25 
24  :  12-14 

31  :  54  • 
45  :  8  .  . 
49  :  11     . 


PAGE 

164 
l6l 

41 
163 
8 
114 
120 
66 
24 
120 
161 
117 


EXODUS. 

3  :  8,  17 80 

9  :  23,  24 66 

13  :  5 8o 

20  :  1-17 145 

20  :  2 150,  151 

23  :  19 88 

23  :  19  ;  34  :  26     ...  62 

24  :  7,  8 148 

25  :  22 145 

26  :  33,  34 M3 

29  :  40 119 

30  :  6,  26 145 

3°  :  34,  35 84 

3i  :  7 x45 

32  :  15 x45 

33  •'  3 8o 

34  :  26 88 

34  :  28 149 

34  :  29 J45 

39  :  35 M5 

40  :  3.  5,  21 145 

40  :  20 149 


LEVITICUS. 


2  :  13     •  • 

2  :  13     .  . 

7  :  11-14  . 

10  :  2   .    .  . 

13  =  52-57  • 

17  :  11     .  . 

19  :  9,  10  . 

20  :  24  .  . 
23  :  12,  13  . 
23  :  15-20  . 


NUMBERS. 

TEXT  PAGE 

4:5 *4S 

7  :  89 145 

13  :  27 80 

14:8 80 

14  :  44 x45 

15  :  5»  IO "9 

16  :  13,  14 80 

18  :  19 17 

21  :  2,  3 137 

23  :  19 168 

28  :  14 119 

DEUTERONOMY. 

5  :  1-22     145 

6:3 80 

9  :  15 x45 

10  :  8 145 

11  :  9 80 

12  :  23 54 

14  :  21 62 

14  :  21 88 

17  :  2-7 114 

23  :  3.  4 24 

24  :  19-21 88 

26  :  9,  15 80 

27  :  3 8o 

29  :  23 133 

31  :  9.  25,  26     ....  145 

31  :  20    . 80 

JOSHUA. 

3  :  3,  6,  8,  11,  14,17  .  145 

4  :  7,  9>  l8 i45 

4  :  16 145 

5:6 80 

6  :  6,  8 145 

7  :  "-15 "4 

8  :  33 145 

JUDGES. 

2  :  20-23 114 

9  ••  45 134 

17  :  10 161 

20  :  27 145 

1  SAMUEL. 

4:3-5 *45 

25  :  10,  11 24 


2  SAMUEL. 

TEXT  PAGE 

15  :  24 i45 


KINGS. 


3  :  15 
6  :  19 
8  :  1,6 
18:4  . 


2  KINGS. 


M5 

i45 

i45 

24 


114 


1  CHRONICLES. 

15  :  25,  26,  28,  29  .  .  145 

16  :  6,  37 145 

17  :  1 *45 

22  :  19 145 

28  :  2,  18 145 

2  CHRONICLES. 

5  :  2.  7 x45 

13  •  5  •   •    


EZRA. 


I    4  :  i4 
'    6:8-1 


j  :  21.  22 
7  :  22     . 


JOB. 


22  :  7 


83 


167 

24 


PSALMS. 

4i  -9  - 1IX 

50  :  5,  16 142 

55  :  *9'21 "4 

107  :  33,  34 x34 

ECCLESIASTES. 

39  :  26 117 


50  :  15 


ISAIAH. 


24  :  5.  6 
34  -4   • 


114 

136 


183 


1 84 


SCRIPTURAL  INDEX 


TEXT 
5i:6    . 

51  :  16 

65  :  11 

65:17 

66  :  22 


MATTHEW. 


JEREMIAH. 

3  :  16 

«  :  5 

"  :  9-"     

17:6 

32  :  22 , 

34  :  17-20 


EZEKIEL. 

16  :  4 

20  :  6, 15 

41  :  22 

43  :  21-24   

47  :  " 


HOSEA. 


6  :  4-7 


MALACHI. 

1  : 6,  7 

3  :  2,  3  


136 

130 


TEXT 


136 
136 


«5 
83 

J34 


ZEPHANIAH. 
2  :  9 134 


8S 


1  MACCABEES. 
6  :  34 117 


MARK. 


14  :  22-24 


LUKE. 


3  :  17    • 

H  :  34     • 
22  :  19,  20 


JOHN. 


1:4. 
4:9- 
4  :  24 
13  :  18 
13  :  34 
15:6  . 


ROMANS. 


1  :  31 

9  :  26 


PAGE 

66 


3  :  12 

5  •"  3  to  7  :  27  ■    •    •    •  170 

5  =  »3 65 

5  :  13.  14 75 

7  :  19 66 

10:8 75 

.,  .  I  IO  :  42 24 

*1S  !  15  :  27 88 

11?  I  22  :  36"4° «73 

"|     25  :  40 269 

J34  I  26  :  26-28 „u 

ho    28  :  i9 I56 

"4     28:20 isi 


65. 


"4 

142 


TEXT 

1  I2  :  * *7 

*3  :  1 it  1 

'3  :  4 163 

*3  :  IO 173 

1  CORINTHIANS. 

3  :  13-15 66 

4:7 167 

11  :  23-25 Hjj 

2  CORINTHIANS. 

2:16 '33 

12  •  14 67 

CO  LOSS  I  AN  S. 
4-6 g7 

2  TIMOTHY. 

2  :  J9 157 

HEBREWS. 
9  :  *9 148 

1  PETER. 

1  •  7 66 

2  PETER. 

3  :  10-12 136 

3  =  *3 136 

1  JOHN. 

4  :  16 174 

4  :  20,  21 i;2 


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Date  Due 


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